November 12, 2014 (Revised November 28, 2014)
The Board has reviewed James Risen's book, “Pay Any Price: Greed, Power and Endless War,” which alleges that APA colluded with the Bush administration, the CIA and the U.S. military to support torture during the war on terror. The Board believes that its October 16, 2014, statement addressing this assertion was fair and accurate, but nevertheless the allegations and public responses have created concern and confusion for the public and APA members. To promote its values of transparency and integrity, and in light of the concerns of members, the Board finds it to be in the best interests of APA to authorize an independent review by outside legal counsel to carefully consider the allegations and ascertain the truth with respect to them.
For these reasons, the Board appoints a special committee ("SC") 1 , which shall (a) on behalf of the Board and the APA, engage an independent legal counsel ("independent reviewer" or "independent counsel") to conduct this independent review, (b) provide the necessary support to the independent counsel in its conduct of the review, including resources, access to people and documents, and other support necessary to ensure the independence of counsel's review, (c) receive the independent counsel's report and transmit it to the Board, without modification, which shall then review it and release it to the APA Council of Representatives, APA members and the public, and (d) make recommendations for responsive action to the Board for its consideration . The SC shall be APA President Dr. Nadine Kaslow, 2015 President-Elect Dr. Susan McDaniel, and APA Treasurer Dr. Bonnie Markham*. The SC will be assisted by APA General Counsel Nathalie Gilfoyle.
The independent reviewer will consider and report to the SC as to whether APA colluded with the Bush administration, CIA or U.S. military to support torture during the war on terror. The review will include but not be limited to the following three issues: (1) whether APA supported the development or implementation of "enhanced" interrogation techniques that constituted torture, (2) whether changes to Section 1.02 of the APA Code of Ethics in 2002 or the formation and/or report of the APA Presidential Task Force on Psychological Ethics and National Security (PENS Task Force) were the product of collusion with the government to support torture or intended to support torture, and (3) Whether any APA action related to torture was improperly influenced by government-related financial considerations, including government grants, contracts or adoption of government policy regarding prescription privileges for psychologists serving in the military.
The SC is authorized to take actions to ensure that the independent review is completed in a thorough and independent manner, and to make recommendations to the full Board, including without limitation to incur expense and retain independent counsel to serve as the independent reviewer and conduct the review. It is the intent of the Board that this review will be thorough and fully independent. The sole objective of the review is to ascertain the truth about the allegations described above, following an independent review of all available evidence, wherever that evidence leads, without regard to whether the evidence or conclusions may be deemed favorable or unfavorable to APA. The SC shall provide this instruction to the independent counsel. The independent reviewer shall have authority to conduct interviews of any present or former employee or member of APA or any other person as he deems necessary or appropriate; and to have access to all information and documents that he believes would assist in his work. APA Staff and Board members are instructed to fully cooperate with the independent review, including by preserving all potentially relevant documents and information; providing all documents (including electronic documents) requested; cooperating in interviews; providing all other information requested; and assisting the independent reviewer in reaching former APA staff or Board members and others outside APA as the independent reviewer deems appropriate.
At the conclusion of the independent review, the independent counsel will present his final report to the SC. The SC shall formulate its conclusions and recommendations, and then transmit the independent reviewer's final report, without modification, together with the SC's conclusions and recommendations, to the Board. After review, the Board will provide the IR without modification to the COR, APA members and the public. The Board will also take such action in response to the IR and the recommendations of the SC as it finds appropriate after its review.