Report: Top psychologists worked with CIA, Pentagon on torture at Guantanamo

The American Psychological Association, the profession's largest U.S. organization, colluded with CIA and Pentagon officials on the nation's post-September 11 interrogation program, a new report commissioned by the association finds.

Association members, including the ethics director, intentionally released broad ethics guidelines that didn't restrict interrogations at Guantanamo Bay, according to the report, the details of which were first released to The New York Times on Friday. The CIA was using tactics like waterboarding, widely considered torture, to obtain information from detainees.

The association, which has since renounced the guidelines permitting its members to take part in interrogations, issued an apology after the report was made public Friday, and ethics director Stephen Behnke was removed from his role, The Washington Post reports.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

"The actions, policies and the lack of independence from government influence described in the Hoffman report represented a failure to live up to our core values," former APA President Nadine Kaslow said in a statement.