[Pnews] Time to End Military/CIA Torture Once and For All

[Prisoner News]

April 30, 2014
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/04/30/time-to-end-militarycia-torture-once-and-for-all/


*PsySR Calls on President to Revoke the Army Field Manual's Appendix 'M'*


  Time to End Military/CIA Torture Once and For All

by STEVEN REISNER

In the face of continued revelations of United States' torture policies 
during the Bush administration, Psychologists for Social Responsibility 
(PsySR), today sent letters to President Barack Obama and Defense 
Secretary Chuck Hagel demanding an end to all ongoing practices of 
torture, cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of prisoners and 
detainees. The letter specifically calls for revoking techniques 
permitted in Appendix 'M' of the current Army Field Manual, such as 
solitary confinement, sleep deprivation, forms of sensory deprivation, 
and environmental manipulations, which individually and combined have 
been condemned internationally as forms of torture, cruel, inhumane or 
degrading treatment, and therefore violate the United States' 
obligations under the Geneva Conventions and the Convention Against 
Torture. In addition, PsySR expressed particularly concern that health 
professionals, including psychologists, have been engaged to support 
such efforts in violation of their ethical responsibilities.

Here is the letter:

    April 29, 2014

    President Barack Obama

    The White House

    1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

    Washington, DC 20500

    Dear Mr. President:

    As an organization of health professionals dedicated to human rights
    advocacy, Psychologists for Social Responsibility strongly objects
    to practices that violate the ethics of health professions and lie
    outside the norms of international law and practice. The recent
    Report of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence confirms that,
    beginning during the Bush Administration, interrogation and
    detention practices were put in place by the CIA that constituted
    torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Practices once
    condemned under law and international treaty were soon redefined by
    the Justice Department to permit a "culture of torture" to
    proliferate under U.S. policy. These practices quickly spread to the
    detention centers of the Department of Defense and throughout the
    theaters of war. While legal progress has been made to limit these
    policies and practices, significant remnants remain under your
    authority. We write to you today to urge you to eliminate all
    existing procedures allowing for torture or cruel, inhuman or
    degrading treatment of detainees.

    In 2009, via Executive Order 13491, your administration officially
    announced its intention to end the torture practices developed and
    instituted under the Bush Administration. Interrogation practices
    that did not conform to the Army Field Manual were abolished.
    However, as documented by numerous legal and human rights groups, as
    well as by former interrogators,[1]
    <http://www.opednews.com/populum/#_ftn1> the Army Field Manual still
    includes abusive techniques in violation of these standards.

    We concur with the recent recommendation of the Institute on
    Medicine as a Profession (IMAP)/Open Society Foundations report [2]
    <http://www.opednews.com/populum/#_ftn2> calling for you to issue a
    new executive order banning interrogation techniques using
    isolation, sleep deprivation, exploitation of fear, and other
    methods that violate international standards regarding torture and
    other forms of cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment. We, too,
    urge you to remediate the ethical standards of the Army Field Manual
    via executive order.

    The current edition of the Army Field Manual (2006) officially
    supports interrogations using "approach techniques," including the
    creation, manipulation, and intensification of phobias and fears in
    prisoners ("Fear Up") and the calculated psychological attack
    against ego or self-esteem ("Emotional Pride and Ego Down"). The
    "Emotional Futility" approach intends to create a perception in a
    prisoner that "resistance to questioning is futile." The manual
    describes the purpose of this technique as engendering "a feeling of
    hopelessness and helplessness" in a detainee and notes the
    "potential for application of the pride and ego approach to cross
    the line into humiliating and degrading treatment of the detainee."

    Also problematic on both basic health and human rights grounds is
    Appendix M, added to this most recent version of the Army Field
    Manual (2-22.3). This special annex proposes a technique known as
    "Separation," which includes the use of solitary confinement, sleep
    deprivation, forms of sensory deprivation, and environmental
    manipulations --- all of which could theoretically be extended
    indefinitely --- as ostensibly legitimate forms of treatment on
    "unlawful combatants." The United Nations Special Rapporteur on
    Torture [3] <http://www.opednews.com/populum/#_ftn3> and independent
    human rights organizations describe such practices as torture and/or
    cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment. As health professionals and
    human rights advocates, we are disturbed that such techniques are
    conducted under an official capacity and by executive order.

    We are particularly concerned that health professionals, including
    psychologists, have been engaged to support such efforts, directly
    or indirectly, in violation of their ethical obligations and in
    violation of the policies of their professional associations.

    As you must be aware, these practices are not only cruel, but also
    yield questionable intelligence and contribute to a perception of
    our country as a systematic violator of human rights. It would serve
    as a strong and principled legacy of your Administration if these
    remaining practices of torture, cruel, inhumane or degrading
    treatment were finally and definitively ended.

    We look forward to your timely response.

    Sincerely,

    Steven Reisner, PhD

    President

    Psychologists for Social Responsibility

    cc: Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel

/*Steven Reisner* is President of Psychologists for Social 
Responsibility (www.psysr.org <http://www.psysr.org/>) and is a founding 
member of the Coalition for an Ethical Psychology 
(www.ethicalpsychology.org <http://www.ethicalpsychology.org/>).
/

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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