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The largest professional psychologist organization in the United States voted Friday to prohibit psychologists from assisting in and colluding with security interrogations and torture practices that government agencies in the military and the intelligence departments conduct on foreign soil.
The vote by the American Psychological Association comes about a month after an internal investigation surfaced showing that high-level officials at the organization colluded with the CIA and the Pentagon to manipulate the association’s ethics guidelines in order to assist the government's “enhanced interrogation program,” what many refer to as a euphemism for torture.
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Our Council voted overwhelmingly to prohibit psychologists from participating in national security interrogations http://t.co/CKUMJsh52v
— APA (@APA)
August 8, 201
The new ban states that psychologists "shall not conduct, supervise, be in the presence of, or otherwise assist any national security interrogations for any military or intelligence entities, including private contractors working on their behalf, nor advise on conditions of confinement insofar as these might facilitate such an interrogation."
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The investigation also exposed that the officials had clamped down on growing dissent from heath professionals at the agencies.
Following the publication of the investigation by the New York Times on July 10, many executives at the APA resigned including its former CEO Dr. Norman Anderson, who took the post at the APA in 2003.
.@APA President Elect & Past President @susanhmcdaniel & @NKaslow at the #APA2015 town hall mtg on the Hoffman Report pic.twitter.com/Y0xC4bs1Id
— Dr. David Ballard (@DrDavidBallard)
August 8, 201
"This is an extraordinary victory because these prohibitions are clear, they're implementable, and people will be held accountable," council member Steven Reisner told the Guardian on Friday. The APA will go "from leading us into the dark side to leading us out of the dark side."
All but one member of the APA's 173-person Council of Representatives voted to end the association's collusion with the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies in abusive interrogations, as well as the so-called "noncoercive" kind now being carried out by the Obama administration.
Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib military psychologist Col. Larry James voted against the prohibition.
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Dr. Susan H. McDaniel, APA’s president-elect and a special committee member, pledged to help implement these new policies as she steps into her new leadership role in 2016.
“We have much work ahead as we change the culture of APA to be more transparent and much more focused on human rights,” McDaniel said. “In addition, we will institute clearer conflict-of-interest policies going forward, all of which are aimed at ensuring that APA regains the trust of its members and the public.”
APA sends corrected press release: psychologists banned from ALL natsec interrogations "not merely those at sites in violation of intl law"
— Jason Leopold (@JasonLeopold)
August 7, 201
However, some within the organizations say that the vote should have included the psychologists' participation in the mistreatment of prisoners within the U.S. territories and in U.S. prisons by local authorities. Reisner said that the vote ignored "domestic cruelty" carried out within the U.S. justice system. "We have to consider that in the future," he said.
Others also said that the APA should make sure to address the broader damage of the “moral compass” of the organization. APA council member Stephen Soldz stated that there is "something profoundly wrong with the way the organization functions ... No one in leadership ever spoke up against it. Not one board member or anyone in leadership over the past 10 years said, 'This is not right.'"
RELATED: The Torture Debate in the USA
