Listed alphabetically, below are descriptions and links to several key documents related to the involvement of US psychologists in “war on terror” detention and interrogation operations.
All the President’s Psychologists This April 2015 report, published in the New York Times, carefully reviews evidence suggestive of the APA’s complicity with the Bush White House and the CIA in support of the continuing involvement of psychologists in abusive interrogations.
American Psychological Association Ethics Code The APA’s Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct consists of an Introduction, a Preamble, five General Principles, and specific Ethical Standards.
American Psychological Association 2008 Member Referendum on Detainee Settings This referendum of APA members passed in September 2008, with 59% of those who voted supporting new prohibitions on psychologists’ working in detainee settings.
Broken Laws, Broken Lives: Medical Evidence of Torture by US Personnel and Its Impact This June 2008 report from Physicians for Human Rights provides medical evidence that confirms first-hand accounts of men who endured torture by US personnel in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo Bay. These men were never charged with any crime.
Brookline Principles on the Ethical Practice of Operational Psychology The principles presented emerged from a September 2015 workshop involving psychologists, physicians, social science professionals military and intelligence professionals, attorneys, ethicists, and human rights advocates.
CIA Office of Inspector General’s Counterterrorism Detention and Interrogation Activities Report This 2004 report includes Appendix F, which provides the September 2003 draft guidelines for the Office of Medical Services regarding medical and psychological support to detainee interrogations.
Constitution Project Report of the Task Force on Detainee Treatment This 2013 report is a comprehensive, bipartisan investigation into the detention and treatment of suspected terrorists detained by the U.S. government during the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations.
Division 39 Letter to APA Ethics Office Frank Summers, the president of APA Division 39 (Psychoanalysis), sent this letter to the APA Ethics Office in February 2014 expressing grave concern over the decision to close the ethics case against Guantanamo psychologist John Leso.
Email Listserv of the APA Task Force on Psychological Ethics and National Security (PENS) An electronic file of the PENS task force listserv proceedings became publicly available on May 8, 2009, through ProPublica, Journalism in the Public Interest.
Experiments in Torture: Evidence of Human Subject Research and Experimentation in the “Enhanced” Interrogation Program This June 2010 report from Physicians for Human Rights indicates that health professionals engaged in research on detainees that violated the Geneva Conventions, the Common Rule, the Nuremberg Code and other international and domestic prohibitions against illegal human subject research and experimentation.
Formal Complaint to APA President about PENS Report In October 2009, four APA members filed a formal complaint according to Rule 90-1, calling for the appointment of a Committee on Constitutional Issues; President Bray refused to appoint such a committee.
“Hoffman Report” (Report of the Independent Reviewer) This report, which examines secret collaboration between the American Psychological Association and the Department of Defense and CIA, was issued in July 2015 after a seven-month investigation by attorney David Hoffman and his Sidley Austin colleagues.
ICRC Report on the Treatment of Fourteen “High Value Detainees” in CIA Custody This February 2007 report from the International Committee of the Red Cross details the findings and recommendations of the ICRC following its visits to fourteen “high value detainees” transferred to Guantanamo in September 2006.
Leave No Marks: Enhanced Interrogation Techniques and the Risk of Criminality This August 2007 report from Physicians for Human Rights and Human Rights First shows that the authorization of “enhanced” interrogation techniques, whether practiced alone or in combination, may constitute torture and/or cruel and inhuman treatment and consequently place interrogators at serious legal risk of prosecution for war crimes and other violations.
Report of the APA Task Force on Psychological Ethics and National Security (PENS) This June 2005 report stated that “it is consistent with the APA Ethics Code for psychologists to serve in consultative roles to interrogation and information-gathering processes for national security-related purposes” and that “psychologists are in a unique position to assist in ensuring that these processes are safe and ethical for all participants.”
The Road to Abu Ghraib This June 2004 report from Human Rights Watch details the policies and decisions of the Bush Administration that led to the abuse at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere.
SASC Inquiry Into the Treatment Of Detainees In U.S. Custody, November 20, 2008 The Senate Armed Services Committee conducted this inquiry on detainee treatment on November 20, 2008 and released the report on April 22, 2009.
SSCI’s Report on the CIA’s Use of Torture, December 9, 2014 The Senate Intelligence Committee investigated the Central Intelligence Agency’s detention and interrogation program and released the executive summary of its report on December 9, 2014.
United Nations Convention Against Torture (UNCAT) The Convention, adopted in 1984, prohibits torture, as well as cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, committed by state actors or those acting with the consent or acquiescence of the state, “for the purpose of obtaining information or a confession, or to punish on suspicion of a crime, or to intimidate or coerce.”
United States Army Field Manual (FM 2-22.3) This Army Field Manual issued in September 2006 governs interrogations by military personnel and by U.S. personnel in a military facility. It includes procedures for the screening and interrogation of prisoners of war and unlawful combatants.