American Psychological Association Bans Members From Participating In Interrogations

By Taylor Tyler | Aug 08, 2015 05:04 PM EDT

Following revelations earlier this year that American Psychological Association (APA) officials actively colluded with the CIA's enhanced interrogation program, the group voted nearly unanimously Friday to prohibit psychologists from participating in future national security interrogations.

The measure was voted on at the APA's 123rd annual convention in Toronto and passed 156-1. Retired Col. Larry James, the former top Army intelligence psychologist at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was the only member of the group's 173-person Council of Representatives to cast a dissenting vote. There were also seven abstentions, the APA said in a press release.

The new resolution states that psychologists "shall not conduct, supervise, be in the presence of, or otherwise assist any national security interrogations for any military or intelligence entities, including private contractors working on their behalf, nor advise on conditions of confinement insofar as these might facilitate such an interrogation."

Friday's meeting was the APA's first since a 542-page internal investigation found that senior officials, including the APA's ethics director, colluded with the U.S. Department of Defense and helped the CIA loosen professional ethics and other guidelines so that psychologists could participate in torture. Soon after its release, four top officials, including the APA's CEO, resigned, as HNGN reported.

In one instance, a former APA president told the CIA that sleep deprivation did not constitute torture, which many argue goes against expert medical opinion, as Psychology Today explains. Based at least partially on the APA's advise, the CIA "kept detainees awake for up to 180 hours, usually standing or in stress positions, at time with their hands shackled above their heads."

An APA spokeswoman added that the new resolution prohibits psychologists "from working at from working at Guantanamo Bay, from the CIA black sites, and any other setting that the UN has declared to be in violation of international law, excepting those psychologists who are performing no task other than offering treatment to fellow soldiers."

The spokeswoman issued a revised comment saying that psychologists may still be present at prohibited interrogation sites "if they are working directly for detainees or for an independent third party working to protect human rights," reported Newsweek.

The debate was reportedly emotional as attendees rehashed the report's findings, and the vote was met with a standing ovation, according to Common Dreams.

"We have to make sure that APA goes from leading us into the dark side, leading us into the torture room, leading us into the use of psychology for abuse ... to leading the way out of the interrogation room, out of the violation of international human rights," Steven Reisner, a New York-based psychologist, said at the event, reported Newsweek.

"Psychologists have got to be the leaders now in transforming the role of health professionals away from standing by or perpetuating human rights violations into holding a standard that says, 'No, we will not be present at places where this happens. If we are, we will protest it and leave.'"