American Psychological Association Rejects Blanket Ban on Participation in Interrogation of U.S. Detainees

With 148,000 members, the APA is the largest body of psychologists in the world. Unlike the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association allows its members to participate in detainee interrogations.

The issue came to a head this weekend during the association’s annual convention. A special series of sessions on ethics and interrogations was held over the three days with panel members that included psychologists, military interrogators, attorneys and human rights activists.

The sessions led up to the vote on Sunday by the APA’s policymaking council. While not banning psychologists from participating in interrogations, the council approved a resolution prohibiting involvement in interrogations that use at least 14 specified methods, including sleep deprivation, sexual humiliation and mock executions.

APA representatives argued that the presence of psychologists keeps interrogations safe and prevents abuse. But in recent months, a string of exposes in Salon.com, Vanity Fair and the New Yorker have revealed that psychologists have played a key role in designing the CIA’s torture tactics. Outraged APA members initially introduced a moratorium resolution that called for an outright ban on participation.

Mark Benjamin is a national correspondent for Salon.com. He has been closely following this story over the years and he attended this weekend’s APA conference. Mark Benjamin joins me now in San Francisco.

• Mark Benjamin. National correspondent for Salon.com. He has been closely following this story and attended this weekend’s APA conference.