APA calls on U.S. government to ban waterboarding and other abusive interrogation techniques

On November 1, APA President Sharon Stephens Brehm, PhD, and APA Chief Executive Officer Norman B. Anderson, PhD, sent three letters calling on U.S. leaders to safeguard the physical and psychological welfare and human rights of individuals incarcerated by the U.S. government in foreign detention centers.

"The ongoing U.S. Senate confirmation process involving Attorney General nominee Michael B. Mukasey provides a timely opportunity," they write, "to expand the July 2007 Executive Order to clarify that "enhanced" interrogation techniques, such as forced nudity, waterboarding, and mock executions, which are defined as torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment by the Geneva Conventions and the United Nations Convention Against Torture, shall not be used or condoned by the U.S. government."

Full-text of letters

Letter to President Bush

Letter to CIA Director Gen. Michael V. Hayden

Letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy and Ranking Member Arlen Specter