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US Psychologists Scrap Interrogation
Ban
SUDHIN THANAWALA
AP
Monday Aug 20, 2007
SAN FRANCISCO - The nation's largest group of psychologists
scrapped a measure Sunday that would have prohibited members from
assisting interrogators at Guantanamo Bay and other U.S. military
detention centers.
The American Psychological Association's policy-making council
voted against a proposal to ban psychologists from taking part
in any interrogations at U.S. military prisons "in which
detainees are deprived of adequate protection of their human rights."
Instead, the group approved a resolution that reaffirmed the
association's opposition to torture and restricted members from
taking part in interrogations that involved any of more than a
dozen specific practices, including sleep deprivation and forced
nakedness. Violators could be expelled and lose their state licenses
to practice.
(Article continues below)
Critics of the proposed ban who spoke before the vote at the 148,000-member
organization's annual meeting said the presence of psychologists
would help insure interrogators did not abuse prisoners.
"If we remove psychologists from these facilities, people
are going to die," said Army Col. Larry James, who serves
as a psychologist at Guantanamo Bay.
Supporters argued that psychologists should not be working at
detention centers where prisoners are detained indefinitely without
being charged.
"If psychologists have to be there so detainees don't get
killed, those conditions are so horrendous that the only moral
and ethical thing is to leave," said Laurie Wagner, a psychologist
from Dallas.
The association's vote follows reports that mental health specialists
were involved in prisoner abuse scandals at Guantanamo Bay and
Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
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INFOWARS:
BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND
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