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.
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"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.
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Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.