Three senior officials lose their jobs at APA after US torture scandal

[n2doc]

Source: Guardian

The torture scandal consuming the US’s premiere professional association of psychologists has cost three senior officials their jobs, part of a reckoning that reformers hope will lead to criminal prosecutions.

As the American Psychological Association copes with the damage reaped by an independent investigation that found it complicit in US torture, the group announced on Tuesday that its chief executive officer, its deputy CEO and its communications chief are no longer with the APA.

All three were implicated in the 542-page report issued this month by former federal prosecutor David Hoffman, who concluded that APA leaders “colluded” with the US department of defense and aided the CIA in loosening professional ethics and other guidelines to permit psychologist participation in torture.

Despite rumors of the three oustings circulating for over a week, the APA framed the departures of longtime executive officials Norman Anderson and Michael Honaker as “retirements”. Rhea Farberman, who served as APA’s communications director for 22 years, “resigned”, the APA said in a statement.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jul/14/apa-senior-officials-torture-report-cia

[wordpix]

1. meanwhile, Cheney, Rummy & * run rich & free with no repercussions

Having a nice retirement in their many homes and travels first class.

[cosmicone]

2. Now go after Dr. Phil who uses people's miseries for ratings n/t

[restorefreedom]

15. i actually liked him at one point

but he has totally debased his show for ratings.

[irisblue]

3. they should, and Cheney should hang @ The Hague

those professionals participated in torture. They used their professional knowledge to hurt another human. Anything their professional societies decry and limit them from being is a small small punishment

[heaven05]

4. good, scapegoats, sacrificial lambs, but culpable

for their evil. Now if we could only find a way for the real architects of this ongoing tragedy in the middle east to get tried as war criminals. That, I think, would go a long way toward turning our country around to a kinder, gentler nation of citizens.

[jtuck004]

5. $80 million paid to Spokane firm for torture assistance.

$80 million paid to Spokane firm for enhanced interrogation
Shawn Vestal The Spokesman-Review

Shawn Vestal

Torture report blames CIA for brutality, deceitDecember 10, 2014
...
More than $80 million in taxpayer money went to Mitchell, Jessen & Associates, the Spokane company formed by James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen to carry forward the work of waterboarding, mock burials and other so-called “enhanced interrogation” techniques the United States adopted starting in 2002. The Senate report said the firm had a contract for up to $180 million, but the interrogation program was disbanded in 2009.

The new report – a blistering and controversial critique of the Bush-era torture program that paints a picture of a sloppy, poorly run program propped up by consistently false claims that torture produced useful information or prevented attacks – spends a lot of pages detailing the participation of Mitchell and Jessen.

The two are former Fairchild survival school psychologists who formed their Spokane company in 2005 to continue their interrogation work as paid contractors. Their central role in developing and promoting the torture techniques has been a matter of public record for years. The men took the survival techniques taught to soldiers and airmen to learn how to resist illegal torture and “reverse-engineered” them as techniques to produce intelligence. The Senate report is the latest of many evaluations that conclude the approach was, in addition to being illegal and inhumane, ineffective.
...

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2014/dec/10/shawn-vestal-80-million-paid-to-spokane-firm-for/

These people were as good for this country as the Confederacy.

[restorefreedom]

16. mock burials?

J*sus.

could have been fine without knowing that.

cheney et all have to be tried for this.

[LeftishBrit]

6. Good; this is incredibly disgusting

[Dont call me Shirley]

7. It's a start. Now it's time to arrest, try, convict and sentence the real criminals .

[mountain grammy]

8. Good! Meanwhile, on corporate American media................

crickets. It never happened.

[Scalded Nun]

9. Until leaders at the top are held legally accountable for putting this into motion...

this country can never be taken seriously on ANY moral issue, human or otherwise.

The entire Bush (W) administration, including W and Cheney, needs to be behind bars for the damage they inflicted upon the world.

Shame on us for not doing anything about it.

[RiverNoord]

10. But it's a start.

There may actually be prosecutions, as several were psychiatrists and therefore medical doctors. And they were civilians. They are answerable to state and federal (but mostly state) anti-abuse laws.

[peacebird]

11. Yes.

[mpcamb]

12. The Guardian is once again the best source for this American story.

The people who ran APA had the moral compass of Bush-Cheney-Rummy and their lot.
They should be jailed.
The organization gave them a pass and let them resign.
It's worth reading yesterday's Guardian story about a true hero in this, Jean Maria Arrigo, whose reputation they relentless tried to ruin.

http://www.theguardian.com/law/2015/jul/13/psychologist-torture-doctors-collusion-jean-maria-arrigo

[Chirpio]

13. Jail time was in order

In my opinion.

[asiliveandbreathe]

14. Prosecute the head of the snake along with the tail - bush and co. -

It would go a long way in diplomatic relations - as well, those tortured and their families should be able to seek justice for such an insidious injustice...take it all the way to conviction and restitution..

..seems there is certainly enough evidence...the case has already been made.....what a national disgrace..we are better than this...

[restorefreedom]

17. this could take decades

but i think we are getting closer to prosecuting those at the top.