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Outside Psychologists Shielded U.S. Torture Program, Report Finds
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of New York Times


New York Times, July 10, 2015
Posted: July 20th, 2015
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/11/us/psychologists-shielded-...

The Central Intelligence Agencys health professionals repeatedly criticized the agencys post-Sept. 11 interrogation program, but their protests were rebuffed by prominent outside psychologists who lent credibility to the program, according to a new report. The 542-page report ... raises repeated questions about the collaboration between psychologists and officials at both the C.I.A. and the Pentagon, [and] concludes that some of the [American Psychological] Associations top officials ... sought to curry favor with Pentagon officials by seeking to keep the associations ethics policies in line with the Defense Departments interrogation policies. The associations ethics office prioritized the protection of psychologists even those who might have engaged in unethical behavior above the protection of the public, the report said. Two former presidents of the psychological association were on a C.I.A. advisory committee, the report found. One of them gave the agency an opinion that sleep deprivation did not constitute torture, and later held a small ownership stake in a consulting company founded by two men who oversaw the agencys interrogation program. The associations ethics director, Stephen Behnke, coordinated the groups public policy statements on interrogations with a top military psychologist, the report said, and then received a Pentagon contract to help train interrogators while he was working at the association, without the knowledge of the associations board.

Note: For more along these lines, read about how the torture program fits in with a long history of human experimentation by corrupt intelligence agencies working alongside unethical scientists. For more, see this list of programs that treated humans as guinea pigs.


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