Last November the American Psychological Association (APA) launched an investigation in response to allegations by author James Rosen. Rosen alleged in his book Pay Any Price: Greed, Power, and Endless War that the association colluded with George W. Bush Administration officials in the development of so-called ‘enhanced interrogation’ techniques. In response, the APA engaged attorney David Hoffman (a former assistant U.S. Attorney) to conduct the investigation, and the report was released on Thursday (H/T The Washington Post). The report release is in advance of the APA Council of Representatives meeting in August.
The report is extensive, over 560 pages plus appendices. Hoffman and his staff have detailed the challenges they have had in meeting with witnesses, many of whom have either declined to do so or delayed meeting for months. The report takes pains to state it does not provide a definitive answer to the matter, but provides as many answers as it could, while organizing and presenting the evidence they have as best they believe they could.
Bottom line, the report indicates there was collusion between elements of the APA and various government agencies over the use of psychologists in connection with ‘enhanced interrogation’ techniques. While the report did not find evidence that APA officials knew of a program using such techniques, it did find that officials had reason to suspect that abusive interrogations had occurred. Those officials also took steps to avoid confirming such suspicions. The collusion extended to developing APA policies that would not place additional constraints on Department of Defense interrogation practices.
The APA Board of Directors regrets these activities and apologized for them in a press release associated with the report. The Board has also recommended the following policy actions to the APA Council, which meets in August.
- Adopt a policy prohibiting psychologists from participating in interrogation of persons held in custody by military and intelligence authorities, whether in the U.S. or elsewhere, but allowing training of military personnel on recognizing and responding to persons with mental illnesses, on the possible effects of particular techniques and conditions of interrogation and other areas within their expertise;
- Create a Commission to evaluate and recommend changes to APA ethics processes;
- Adopt formal guidelines to ensure that all relevant policies are anchored in APA core values, including promoting human rights, human welfare and ethics;
- Approve the substitute motion of Council New Business Item #23B, which clarifies the role of psychologists related to interrogation and detainee welfare in national security settings and safeguards against acts of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in all settings.
The Board also approved the following actions:
- Increase the organization’s engagement around human rights activities in collaboration with other organizations;
- Collaborate with the Council to create governance constraints on elected and appointed APA officials;
- Evaluate existing conflict-of-interest policies regarding financial, policy or relationship-based conflicts to ensure the policies are understood and followed;
- Adopt clear procedures for appointing members to APA Task Forces and Commissions;
- Create specific criteria for emergency action by the Board.
Pasco Phronesis 