Three senior officials lose their jobs at APA after US torture scandal
Source: Guardian
The torture scandal consuming the USs 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 APAs 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
(18,652 posts)Having a nice retirement in their many homes and travels first class.
cosmicone
(11,014 posts)restorefreedom
(12,655 posts)but he has totally debased his show for ratings.
irisblue
(33,034 posts)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
(18,124 posts)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
(15,882 posts)$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
(12,655 posts)J*sus.
could have been fine without knowing that.
cheney et all have to be tried for this.
LeftishBrit
(41,212 posts)Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)mountain grammy
(26,655 posts)crickets. It never happened.
Scalded Nun
(1,240 posts)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
(1,150 posts)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
(14,195 posts)mpcamb
(2,878 posts)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
(28 posts)In my opinion.
asiliveandbreathe
(8,203 posts)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
(12,655 posts)but i think we are getting closer to prosecuting those at the top.