WASHINGTON — James Risen’s new book, “Pay Any Price: Greed, Power, and Endless War,” touches on an ugly period in our nation’s history, one in which longstanding principles of human rights were violated.
Mr. Risen contacted the American Psychological Association (APA) about two years ago while working on his book. At that time, APA staff communicated their willingness to be interviewed. Risen indicated that he would send specific questions about APA’s work on the interrogation issue but never did. Therefore his conclusions about APA are largely based on innuendo and one-sided reporting. If Risen had interviewed an APA staff person, he would have learned that the association has taken numerous steps in the last decade to reiterate our strict prohibition against torture, ensure that all psychologists and federal officials were aware of the policy, and address any misconceptions about our position. APA’s longstanding efforts to safeguard against the use of torture are documented in this timeline.
We would have also given Risen information that may have caused him to rethink his notion that APA had a financial motivation to support the Department of Defense (DoD) in its detainee interrogation policies. That notion is absurd. For the record, 98 percent of APA’s total budget comes from sales of our publications and databases, membership dues, our annual convention, advertising revenue, program fees and rents for association-owned office buildings. Our income from grants and contracts is 2 percent of the association’s total budget and none of our grant or contract support is in any way related to DoD funding.
A second inaccurate assertion is Risen’s mischaracterization of meetings that APA had with psychologists and behavioral scientists who work in national security settings as collusion and secret. While APA did host invitation-only meetings with psychologists and national security officials, the purpose of those meetings was to allow for frank discussion of the ethical and practice challenges facing psychologists working in national security settings. One goal was to bring the expertise of psychologists who study investigative interview techniques and such issues as threat assessment and lie detection to practical applications in national security settings. Another goal was to ensure that national security policies were well-informed by empirical science. A third and equally important goal was to delineate and distinguish appropriate roles and behaviors for psychologists in national security settings from inappropriate roles and behaviors. Contrary to the innuendo in Risen’s book, it is not in any manner unusual or inappropriate for the APA Ethics Office to offer a confidential venue for psychologists to engage in discussions regarding the ethical challenges in their area of practice.
In July 2013, APA’s actions with respect to interrogations were combined into a single, comprehensive policy entitled “Policy Related to Psychologists’ Work in National Security Settings and Reaffirmation of the APA Position against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.”
The policy comprises seven key statements that affirm the association’s longstanding position against torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and punishment, and provide ethical guidance to psychologists working in national security settings. The key tenets of APA’s anti-torture policy include:
- A definition of torture based on the U.N. Declaration and Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
- A no-exceptions prohibition against the use of specific abusive interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, hooding, forced nudity and stress positions, among others. War or the threat of terrorism does not change APA’s no-exceptions prohibition.
- A reaffirmation of a 2009 APA policy that prohibits psychologists from working in unlawful national security detention settings unless they are working directly for the detainee or for a third party to protect human rights or they are providing treatment to military personnel.
- An unequivocal statement that there are no exceptional circumstances that ever justify the use of torture or other abuses of prisoners by any health care provider, government agent or military personnel.
APA has communicated this policy to the president, the attorney general, heads of CIA and the Defense Department, and the chairs and ranking members of all congressional committees with jurisdiction.
In communicating APA’s explicit no-torture policy to the media and the public, APA has always made clear that, aside from torture’s being unethical, the preponderance of scientific research has shown it to be an ineffective, if not counterproductive, method of eliciting information.
Mr. Risen is correct that neither James E. Mitchell nor Bruce Jessen — the two alleged instigators of the CIA’s enhanced interrogations program — are members of APA. However, APA took the unusual step of sending a letter to the Texas State Board of Examiners of Psychologists in 2010 when a member complained about Mitchell’s involvement in the CIA’s interrogations program under President George W. Bush. In that letter, APA noted that if an APA member had committed the deeds attributed to Mitchell, he or she would be expelled from the association.
APA is committed to fostering the highest ethical standards for the profession. We are also committed to encouraging the highest ethical standards for all psychologists, whether they are APA members or not. We will continue to proactively communicate our strict and explicit no torture under any circumstances policy to federal officials so they are fully aware of the appropriate restrictions on psychologists’ roles.
The American Psychological Association, in Washington, D.C., is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States. APA's membership includes nearly 130,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance the creation, communication and application of psychological knowledge to benefit society and improve people's lives.