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<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/bond02122008.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.counterpunch.org/bond02122008.html<br><br>
</a></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4><b>February 12,
2008<br><br>
</font><h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5><b>Camp 7 and the
Torturer's Shrink<br><br>
<br>
</i></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5 color="#990000">The
Elephant at
Gitmo</b></font></h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5>By Dr.
TRUDY BOND<br><br>
<br>
</font>
<dl>
<dd><font face="Verdana" size=2>"Doctor, my eyes tell me what Is
wrong . . .<br>
<dd>Was I unwise to leave them open for so long?"<br><br>
<dd>Jackson Browne, "Doctor My Eyes"<br><br>
<dd>"I am proud to be a member of the American Psychological
Association, proud for what APA has stood for in these troubling times,
and deeply grateful to the Association for supporting me and my
colleagues in our quest to ensure that all in our custody are treated
with human decency and respect." <br><br>
<dd>Larry C. James<br>
<dd>Colonel, United States Army<br>
<dd>
<a href="http://www.salon.com/news/primary_sources/2007/06/23/psychologists/">
June 23, 2007</a><br><br>
<dd>"Having custody and control over an individual is an awesome
responsibility."<br><br>
<dd>Larry James<br>
<dd>Colonel and Psychologist <br>
<dd>June 23, 2007<br><br>
<dd>"This is my second tour at Gitmo, Cuba. I was also the first
psychologist at Abu Ghraib. I'm going to repeat what I said earlier. If
we remove psychologists from these facilities, people are going to die.
If we remove psychologists from these facilities, people are going to get
hurt."<br><br>
<dd>Larry James<br>
<dd>APA National Convention<br>
<dd>August 15, 2007<br><br>
</font>
</dl><font face="Verdana" size=6 color="#990000">S</font>
<font face="Verdana" size=2>ounds good Colonel James. Great sound bytes.
Good enough to convince thousands of psychologists that you're the real
thing, as American as Stealth bombers and pre-emptive war. Who would
possibly think that psychologists in the military would engage in torture
after listening to you? Good enough that you became the poster child for
the American Psychological Association as they pulled out all stops in
their attempts to defeat those few psychologists opposed to torture,
inhuman conditions and the disappearance of habeas corpus. They brought
you all the way from Guantanamo for their song and dance show. Not even
most psychologists, those who are supposed to understand human behavior,
saw through your charade, as you convinced them that their professional
association really IS on the side of truth and goodness. <br><br>
The APA used you to introduce a different resolution against torture for
the second year in a row, in an attempt to deflect the dissenters and
detractors. APA's use of resolutions as a means to stop torture have
proven to be simply a sleight of hand to appease the multitudes and the
media, but actually signifies nothing.<br><br>
Perhaps you'll repeat history, Colonel James. In 2006, Surgeon General
Kevin Kiley was used by APA leaders to offer the 2006 "Resolution on
Torture." Remember him? He lost his job a few months after
presenting THAT resolution, another military officer who was willing to
overlook the inhumane treatment of people that were considered to have no
value.<br><br>
But you blew it this week, Colonel. One might say you fell out of role,
and the truth became evident. Though you are in charge of the team of
psychologists that assists interrogators at Guantanamo, when the
Associated Press reported last week on the just-revealed Camp 7 at
Guantanamo where detainees from CIA secret detention facilities are kept,
including the detainees who HAVE been water-boarded, including Abu
Zubaydah who endured water-boarding with two psychologists present, you
stated you just don't want to know about it.<br><br>
"I learned a long, long time ago, if I'm going to be successful in
the intel community, I'm meticulously -- in a very, very dedicated way --
going to stay in my lane," he said. "So if I don't have a
specific need to know about something, I don't want to know about it. I
don't ask about it."<br><br>
You, the military psychologist, who spoke so piously of how much you
cared to protect detainees at Gitmo, who so scrupulously defended your
character as patriotically humane - didn't you just sell out the fate of
those detainees for the advancement of your career? <br><br>
You commanded the Guantanamo Behavioral Science Consultation Teams from
January 2003 to mid-May 2003, during a time when the International
Committee of the Red Cross stated that the treatment of detainees at
Guantanamo amounted to torture.<br><br>
Under your command and supervision, psychologists from the military's
Survival, Evasion Resistance, and Escape (SERE) program were instructed
to apply their expertise in abusive interrogation techniques to the
interrogations of detainees in Guantanamo, according to
<a href="http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/dod/abuse.pdf">a report</a> from
the Office of the Inspector General.<br><br>
According to the
<a href="http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Guantanamo_document_confirms_psychological_torture%20">
Standard Operating Procedure manual</a> at the time that you were the
Chief Psychologist at Guantanamo, all incoming detainees were to be held
in isolation for the first 30 days "to enhance and exploit the
disorientation and disorganization felt by a newly arrived detainee in
the interrogation process" and were not entitled to the protections
afforded by the Geneva Conventions.<br><br>
So while you and the American Psychological Association continue to
assert that military psychologists are necessary at Guantanamo, Abu
Ghraib, Bagram and other detention sites - to build rapport, to
"protect" the detainees, to stop other military personnel from
harming and killing the detainees - you're telling reporters that the
secret to your success is to look the other way. What else could it mean
when you say, "if I'm going to be successful in the intel community
. . . I'm meticulously . . . going to stay in my lane . . . I don't want
to know?" <br><br>
The fact is, for you and our professional organization, it's all about
keeping your job. You toe the military line for your paycheck. And the
APA toes the military line to curry the favor of the Department of
Defense and the current administration for contracts. All the rest is
window dressing, such as the
<a href="http://www.apa.org/ethics/followuptores.html">APA's gratuitous
letter to Attorney General Mukasey</a> this week. The letter is a
lobbyist's masterpiece, suggesting that waterboarding is legal torture in
one paragraph and then asking the AG to please hurry up and render a
legal ruling in the next.<br><br>
But as you seem not to be motivated by considerations of ethics, Colonel
James, perhaps the potential for life in prison might have more impact.
At the Nuremberg Trials, it was held that merely following orders will
not absolve you from criminal liability. In that rare moment of
truthiness, you told us that your guilty knowledge may pose
inconveniences for you: "[I]f I don't have a specific need to know
about something, I don't want to know about it. I don't ask about
it."<br><br>
Before denouncing the above, take time to
<a href="http://www.salon.com/news/abu_ghraib/2006/03/14/introduction/">
visit this article</a>.
<a href="http://www.salon.com/news/abu_ghraib/2006/03/14/introduction/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.salon.com/news/abu_ghraib/2006/03/14/introduction/<br><br>
</a>Dr. Trudy Bond</b> has been a licensed psychologist for 27 years. She
can be reached at
<a href="mailto:ar_mordilo@yahoo.com">ar_mordilo@yahoo.com</a>.<br><br>
<br><br>
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