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| Ander Nieuws week 36 / nieuwe oorlog 2008 |
 
 
 
200 protest psychologists' interrogation role

 
USA Today
16 August 2008
Sharon Jayson
 
About 200 demonstrators rallied Saturday outside the convention hall where some 14,000 are attending the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association to protest the role of psychologists in military interrogations.
 
Psychologists have traditionally played a part in questioning of U.S. captives done by the military or intelligence agencies. Some psychologists have criticized such work during the Bush administration's anti-terrorism effort as a code of ethics violation, while others say eliminating the psychologists' participation would make the interrogations more harmful for detainees.
 
At the two-hour rally, groups of psychologists, including Psychologists for an Ethical APA and Psychologists for Social Responsibility, as well as human rights organizations, including representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International, blasted those psychologists for their part in the Bush administration's practices. And they say they're outraged over the APA's acceptance of psychologists' participation because of what they say are human rights violations by the government.
 
"Who would have thought that the APA — whose code of ethics mandates a respect for basic principles of human rights and holds psychologists 'to a higher standard of conduct than is required by the law' — would be so reluctant to prohibit psychologists from participating in interrogations from Guantánamo to Abu-Ghraib," Nancy Murray of the American Civil Liberties Union in Massachusetts told the crowd. "The APA has justified this 'policy of engagement' by stating its involvement is intended to stop unethical interrogations."
 
The APA approved a policy last year that defined parameters for psychologists, prohibiting 19 coercive procedures, including waterboarding, the use of hoods and any physical assault. In a statement issued Saturday, the APA re-iterated its position by saying "No psychologist – APA member or not — should be directly or indirectly involved in any form of detention or interrogation that could lead to psychological or physical harm to a detainee. ... Doing so would be a clear violation of the profession's ethical standards."
 
Intermingled in the crowd were protestors carrying signs with slogans such as "Do No Harm" and "No Torture/No Collaboration."
 
Nathaniel Raymond of Physicians for Human Rights, a health professional organization that has been outspoken about abuse of detainees in U.S. custody, told the rally, "It's about restoration of the values that define us. It's not just about interrogations. It's about who were are in the world."
 
Copyright 2008 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
 
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| Ander Nieuws week 36 / nieuwe oorlog 2008 |