Psychologists, Ethics and Torture

Below is a live tweet record by @BrandonHamber of the panel discussion at the International Congress of Psychology 2012 in Cape Town.

The panel began with the screening of Doctors of the Dark Side followed by a discussion on the ethical issues facing psychologists given the controversy about psychologists involved in interrogations at Guantanamo Bay, and the American Psychological Association (APA) stance on the issue.

On the panel Leslie London (South Africa), Stephen Behnke (APA Ethics), Paul Kimmel (USA), Mike Wessells (APA), Chair: Umesh Bawa (South Africa) and moderator Norman Duncan (South Africa)

@BrandonHamber Tweet Record 27 July 2012

10:04am
Just watched Doctors of the Dark Side. Films about role of physicians and psychologists in detainee torture ow.ly/cxoC9 #icp2102

10:05am
There is now a panel discussion on the issue of torture and psychologists role in allowing it to happen #icp2012

10:06am
Leslie London speaking first from South Africa #icp2012

10:07am
London notes the failure of accountability is striking for psychologists who oversaw torture in Guantanamo Bay #icp2012

10:08am
Failure to hold health professionals accountable will result in abuses in the future says London #icp2012

10:09am
London says at least 29 doctors reported for involvement in apartheid, only one ever investigate #icp2012

10:09am
Cannot have ethics without human rights says Leslie London #icp2012

10:11am
Stephen Behnke adresses accountability from APA perspective. Says we cannot do anything about non APA members #icp2012

10:11am
Stephen Behnke is the Director, APA Ethics Office #icp2012

10:12am
Behnke says organisations have a responsibility to offer support to psychologists in these difficult positions #icp2012

10:14am
APA made a list in 2007 of practices that are forbidden including water boarding. APA took to long to do that says Behnke #icp2012

10:15am
When to know when to pull out of a situation or not is a difficult issue says Behnke #icp2012

10:16am
Behnke uses the death penalty as an example. It is legal in US, APA has intervened to prevent it in some cases #icp2012

10:16am
But it is difficult to know if we should pull out entirely or if we should have intervened in some cases says Behnke #icp2012

10:18am
Discussion very polite so far, does not capture the massive tensions in the APA there have been over the years on this issue #ico2012

10:23am
Mike Wessells former Director of Psychologists for Social Responsibility now talking #icp2012

10:24am
Wessells says we need to think systemically because torture is an issue that is still not over, there are systemic pressures #icp2012

10:25am
After 9/11 in US a distortion of issues and psychologists were not immune from the images and manipulation of Bush administration #icp2012

10:26am
George Bush distorted the nature of law about torture #icp2012

10:27am
No laws should throw out human rights says Wessells. Human rights standards have to be above national law #icp2012

10:28am
Wessells says we need support for whistleblowers and accountability #icp2012

10:28am
Torture does not happen because of bad apples, systemic and enabling factors need to be addressed says Wessells #icp2012

10:29am
A coalition of all psychology associations is needed that rises above our own membership and offer moral guidance says Wessells #icp2012

10:34am
It was unethical for psychologists to be at Guatanamo Bay because it was decreed beyond international standards says Wessells #icp2012

10:35am
Floor getting heated, someone saying that surely we should have just been out of this altogether #icp2012

10:36am
Another person from the floor asks if the APA should apologise for any of its actions #icp2012

10:37am
Nora Soveass from UN Committee of Prevention of Torture raises the issue that convention also talks about prevention #icp2012

10:39am
If there are no rights in an area, like the ICR not being allowed into a place, we should no be there says Sveaass #icp2012

10:40am
Behnke now speaking. Says he agrees with Sveaass. There are no exceptional circumstances #icp2012

10:41am
Behnke says the Bush memos on torture were horrific #icp2012

10:42am
Behnke says APA was too slow, we took too long. But as we move forward, never again will US psychologist be involved in this #icp2012

10:45am
Wessells on again says Sveaass reminds us that the specificity of what was happening in Guantanamo was known #icp2012

10:46am
We need to do an honest retrospective and admit that big mistakes were made, we need a broader vision and not tinkering #icp2012

10:50am
Another question what is being done to prevent this from happening again #icp2012

10:47am
Behnke: APA is clear. No torture or involvement in this, and clear psychologists have to report torture if they're aware of issues #icp2012

10:57am
Behnke says he agrees with Wessells we need to think systemically #icp2012

10:57am
But Behnke says APA has not agreed about the issue of where we should be or not be, that is more controversial in the organisation #icp2012

10:58am
Leslie London says international human rights law is our benchmark, without that we end up asking how much torture is torture #icp2012

11:00am
Wessells says as long as we use language like do what is safe and legal its a problem, we need ethics that transcends national law #icp2102

11:05am
Paul Kimmel ends and says we don't need lawyers but we need to be humanists, and go back to that to prevent torture #icp2012

11:06am
Umesh Bawa, Chair from South Africa says we must remember we have said never again after Nuremberg and there was Rwanda etc. #icp2012

11:07am
Bawa notes that there is continuing torture around the globe and calls for us to remember that as it is going on #icp2012

11:07am
Bawa says we have to commit ourselves to defending human rights in all situations #icp2012

11:08am
Panel ends. Will it make a difference? I don't know? Better we have it, but so much to be done and is the system as Wessells notes #icp2012

11:14am
And here is a photo of the panel for good measure ow.ly/i/NMwJ #icp2012

11:30am
Here is a piece "The Ghost of Jeffrey Benzein Lives On" that I wrote about torture and professionals a while back, read here.

11:44am
The discussion on APA and torture still bouncing in my head #icp2012

11:45am
The more I think about it the more ridiculous the notion of lists of acceptable and unacceptable practices seem to me #icp2012

11:46am
The fact 'torture' lists are needed suggests a moral and ethical vacuum at the core of the APA and training of psychologists #icp2012

11:47am
Mike Wessells is correct there is a systematic problem in the profession and wider society #icp2012

Other resources:

Psychologists for Social Responsibility Documents on Torture

Coalition for an Ethical Psychology

10-Year "Psychology, Torture, and the APA" Timeline

Timeline of APA Policies and Actions

Torture at Abu Ghraib

A war on terror or a war on reason

India defies description, especially after you spend only a week there and in one city, Delhi. Delhi is a great city of the world, embodying dozens of cultures, old and new. The city survives on teeming markets selling anything from bananas to electronics and a modern financial sector that is expanding rapidly.

The Indian economy has been growing at an annual rate of 8% to 9% recently, the second-fastest expanding economy in the world, behind China.

However, when I first arrived in Delhi, the signs of this new economic giant were hard to spot. The airport was underdeveloped – OR Tambo International Airport, in Johannesburg, makes it look like a small regional airport time-warped in the 1960s. At first glance, the city looks like it is more in decay than development. Crumbling buildings, beggars and poorly kept streets with children in gutters and thousands of people peddling cheap small items is the norm.

However, as I acclimatised to the bustling capital, I started to see development everywhere. In the middle of a row of rundown buildings and behind people, cars, animals and bicycles are upmarket clothes stores, software companies and international banks. Once you start to head out of the city, it becomes even more evident: new shopping malls, office blocks and modern apartments for sale. This is a country on the move, although still with a massive underclass.

Billboards advertise "the lifestyle you want", complete with pictures of compact apartments, swimming pools, fully equipped with 'German kitchens' and a photo of a smiling family, which invariably includes daddy, mommy, son and daughter. The influence of the West is pervasive and growing.

However, it is not only the Western lifestyles that is being imported. Ethnic strife, marked by what George W Bush would call the 'war on terror', is also notably present in India.

This was made all too real on the last night of my stay, when a series of five bombs exploded across Delhi, killing 25 people and injuring over 100. Two of the bombs went off fairly close to my hotel. I had eaten in the bombed district and driven through the area numerous times. The attacks were claimed by a group called the Indian Mujahideen, which is said to be linked to al-Qa'ida.

Immediately following the blasts, eerily familiar debates began playing themselves out on television. Was the government tough enough on radicals, asked the media. And the word 'terrorism' was thrown about by the Indian government in a way reminiscent of a US Republican convention or Sunday lunch on the Bush ranch.

Of course, the bombs in Delhi are acts of terror. Blowing up innocent people is immoral. But is it helpful to lump every act of terror in the same boat? Those setting off the bombs and world governments are equally guilty in that.

It is comfortable for governments to frame all extreme acts of violence as being about the war on terror. Such language justifies tough military action and tighter police control, while often diverting attention from other problems, such as poverty, structural discrimination and long histories of political tension. Governments seem to take perverse pleasure in being part of the global 'war on terror' club.

The alleged perpetrators also like to oversimplify matters. In an email from the Indian Mujahideen, the bombs are said to be a response to the "hostile hatred" of Islam and justified punishment for the "sins" of the people.

But when did global politics and political ideology become so simple?

Bush wants us to believe that there is only one war, and the bombers that there is only one justifiable struggle.

The rise of the totalising discourse is of great concern. Surely, it denies complex local politics, individual power struggles and massive cultural variations in how the so-called war on terror plays itself out. Painting everything with the same brush is not only lazy, anti-explanatory and culturally vacuous, but dangerous.

This article by Brandon Hamber was published on Polity and in the Engineering News on 3 October 2008 as part of the column "Look South". Copyright Brandon Hamber.

Forget the war on terror, it's morals that count

It was a strange time to be in Boston in the midst of the US election. The tension was palpable and the support for Kerry-a native son of the city-pervasive. Right up until counting started the mood was optimistic. Early exit polls suggested a Kerry victory. But very soon it all started to turn for the Democrats. By 5:30am on election day, as I sat glued to the television abandoning my plans to observe the downtown Kerry “victory” rally, it was all but over. Bush was going to win.

The following day the usually lively city seemed melancholic. Over breakfast, hotel patrons spoke openly about their disappointment. Some told me they were embarrassed to be an American. They felt isolated and that they were living in another universe to their Bush-supporting compatriots. That evening in a shop I greeted an attendant “Hi. How you doing?”

His response: “I'm looking for a new country to live in,” his words indicative of the deep ruptures that now exist within the US.

Sometime on Wednesday, President Thabo Mbeki officially congratulated George Bush. He wished him well and “fervently” hoped for “greater world stability and peace under his leadership”. No one noticed. The US is a country that is wrapped up in itself these days despite its military exploits abroad. Those of a liberal persuasion-or at least a sizeable proportion of the 56 million people or 48% of the electorate who voted for Kerry-are struggling to figure out what went wrong and what is going on. Much soul searching is being done.

When asked what issues mattered most in choosing a president, survey data in the New York Times revealed that “moral values” ranked top with economy and jobs, followed by terrorism and the Iraq war. Seemingly issues such as tax, education and health care were seen as less important. A swathe of Americans feel that the moral world is crumbling about them. A strong, principled leader that can oppose abortion, stem-cell research, and gay marriage is what they feel is needed. Just over half of voting Americans feel that Bush is such a person. To the remainder, Bush as a moral icon is laughable, given his warmongering overseas.

Meanwhile, Mbeki, in his message to Bush, appealed for “renewed support for, and interest in Africa and the developing world, reform of world institutions and an era of multilateralism marked by a concerted drive to deal decisively with the challenge of poverty and underdevelopment”. It is hard to imagine that this is even on the map for the US right now. A conservative revolution is on the march.

It is easy for those from a liberal perspective to write this off or treat Bush supporters as if they are misguided bible-bashers. But the problem is more complex than that. It is time to face the fact that the right-wing in the US is organised. They moved door-to-door securing their position. The Bush campaign utilised 1,2 million volunteers with four times as many workers in Ohio than 2000. They sold “Faith, Family and Flag” and the majority of the electorate bought it.

This suggests that many fear some sort of global moral vacuum that they think the Republicans can fill. Such views litter internet chat rooms across the US. As one Bush supporter put it: “I'm sorry but I don't lose sleep over Iraq. What I do lose sleep over is my children's future in the immoral cess pit that this country is becoming”.

We all want a safe and decent world; one that embodies good values. This is why Bush attracted the vote of some moderates as well as his traditional neo-conservative and Christian fundamentalist supporters. But their votes have endorsed, whether knowingly or not, an approach whereby the language of moral values will continue to be used to hide a value-free political and economic agenda.

The politics of morality is a new global battleground. The results can be disastrous. Estimates put the death toll in Iraq as anywhere between 20 000 and 100 000 civilians. These people were killed in the name of freedom, democracy and to allegedly make the world a safer place.

But who has really benefited from this “moral” campaign? Mostly those who sell weapons, reconstruction contractors and private security firms, many close to the Bush regime. The Bush administration has, in Iraq's most vulnerable moment, tendered it off to the lowest bidder with no discernible benefit to its indigenous economy. Defence contracts worth 76 billion dollars, for example, have been connected to nine out of thirty members of the US Defense Policy Group.

In South Africa we cannot ignore these developments. The influence of the Bush administration is going to be felt more than before in the coming years. Negotiating investment may soon not only be about crude economic negotiations alone. Is it possible that South African constitutional approaches to issues such as gay marriage could be on the table in future trade talks? As South Africans we must not simply beg for investment or bend over backwards to get it no matter the cost. We need to unmask what is going on and ask what the “real” price of investment might be.

This is particularly important given that the language of morality may also find resonance in conservative parts of Africa. Think of the views of some African churches on homosexuality. Will these confluences of interest be used to open more economic doors into Africa for Republican-aligned companies that give little back to local economies? We cannot simply dismiss the right-wing any more or get away with taunts of imperialism. Poking fun at Bush's gaffs on the podium is not enough. A serious analysis of the politics of morality and conservatism and its implications for the developing world is desperately needed. Supporting moral values sounds benign but we must ensure that the debate on morality is detached political projects.

It is time for a renewed interest in the US. We need to reach out to those who do not want morality used negatively. It is time for new alliances with liberals and progressives in the US, many of whom feel besieged in their own country right now. After all, there are only about 1 400 days to the next US election.

This article by Brandon Hamber was published on Polity and in the Engineering News on 19 November 2004 as part of the column "Look South". Copyright Brandon Hamber.

Afghanistan...forgotten?

For those interested I would strongly suggest reading Kim Sengupta article on Afghanistan that provides a snapshots of a continuing conflict in Afghanistan. As Kim Sengupta puts it "a war of attrition taking place largely in the shadows with the focus of the world's media firmly fixed on Iraq". Also questioning: "George Bush and Tony Blair made grand promises when they took on the Taliban. They sound hollow now. What does it all mean for Iraq?". Also includes some UNICEF figures like the fact that 1 million girls still need to get into education in the country! Have a read, more...

America War Dead and Princess Diana

A friend, Dom, just dropped me an email to note the irony of the fact that the US is said to be furious over the publication of photos of the coffins of American Iraq war dead (see BBC article), in the same week as it is found OK to publish pictures of a dying Diana. Strange old world. The BBC article also highlights the following stats, 135,000 US troops in Iraq, tour of duty extended for 20,000, 91 US soldiers killed in April (and hundreds of Iraqis, unofficial sources say) and nearly 600 US troops killed since 1 May 2003. What a waste all round.

New Government for Spain

On Thursday March 11 2004 a series of bombs exploded at railway stations in Madrid, killing more than 200 people. Throughout Spain, millions took to the streets to protest against terrorism. On Sunday March 14 Spain's government - widely seen as hiding the truth about who was responsible for the attacks - was thrown out in the general election. Here the Guardian presents a selection of images from the days following the attack, a moment in history...and at least change seems like it is on the way...see picture series...

All bets are off on terror, rules Pentagon

The Pentagon, writes Julian Borger, has dropped its plan to allow speculators to make bets on future terrorist attacks in the hope that it would help military planners to predict future threats. The $8m scheme, which would have allowed punters to speculate on the likelihood of assassinations, coups and the full range of possible disasters in the Middle East, caused uproar in Congress, where Democratic senators dubbed it a "terrorism betting parlour"....more...

Visa Holders Face Extra Scrutiny

"Foreign visitors arriving with visas at U.S. airports or seaports next year will have their travel documents scanned, their fingerprints and photos taken and their identification checked against terrorist watch lists... The system will be enhanced later, possibly to include iris scans or facial recognition technology" - from a report in Wired News.

Iraq Spinning out of control sent by Helen McLaughlin

My immediate concern about this war is about how it will affect civilians in Iraq. But I have a deep concern about the long term consequences of the US and UK going against the will of the UN. It has been bad enough to watch Tony Blair act as the palatable, smiling "reasonable" face of the monkey in the White House. It has been bad enough to watch them falling over themselves to start a war. But the thing that concerns me most of all is the way in which the US and UK have turned the blame for all of this on the UN itself for a failure of process. The UN has a process for agreeing military action, and all members of the Security Council agree that it is important for a veto option to be in place for permanent members, precisely to temper action in controversial situations. Indeed, the US has used the veto itself on at least 34 occasions (largely to block resolutions against Israel). I did not hear the US or UK declare this to be a failure of the UN process, but I am quite sure that on the contrary, the US welcomed the opportunity to block actions it could not support. Other members of the Security Council may well have been frustrated by the US veto on many occasions, but the process was upheld as one that they had all agreed to. Now, when France exercises its democratic right to veto, it is spun by the UK and US as a failure of the UN process. The spin says that because France threatened a veto, this forced them to take military action - surely the opposite is in fact the case - that a veto from a respected permanent member of the security council required them rather to back away from military action, and to seek alternative solutions. While France has its own case to answer for supplying weapons to Iraq along with US and UK in the past, this spin against France is entirely cynical. I have been dismayed and disgusted by the way this has been spun - the better Tony Blair & co get at spinning words around to suit their own ends the more certain I become that they are not to be trusted. It must equally dismay the Security Council to be told that Resolution 1441 constituted an approval for war, when the US ambassador, in order to cajole members into supporting the resolution, described it as having no "automaticity" or "trigger" for military action. Words are spoken, then the spin is applied with hindsight to render them lies at worst, meaningless at best. It is difficult to trust what you hear these days. The war on Iraq is wrong.

Reckless Administration May Reap Disastrous Consequences

Reckless Administration May Reap Disastrous Consequences says US Senator Robert Byrd. Speak Out says Lawrence Ferlinghetti.