Psychologists Collaborated with CIA & Pentagon on Post-9/11 Torture Program, May Face Ethics Charges

"Democracy Now!" airs weekdays at 9 a.m. PT on KCET.

A new independent review has revealed extensive details on how members of the American Psychological Association, the world's largest group of psychologists, were complicit in torture, lied, and covered up their close collaboration with officials at the Pentagon and CIA to weaken the association's ethical guidelines and allow psychologists to participate in the government's "enhanced" interrogation programs after 9/11.

The 542-page report was commissioned by the association's board of directors last year based on an independent review by former Assistant U.S. Attorney David Hoffman and undermines the APA's repeated denials that some of its 130,000 members were complicit in torture. The Guardian reports the new details could provide grounds to file ethics charges against members of the APA. "Democracy Now!" speaks with Dr. Stephen Soldz, professor at the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis and co-founder of the Coalition for an Ethical Psychology. Earlier this month, he was invited to address the APA's board of directors, along with Coalition for an Ethical Psychology co-founder Steven Reisner, on the APA's response to the anticipated Hoffman report.

"Democracy Now!" is also joined by Dr. Jean Maria Arrigo, a social psychologist, oral historian, and a member of the Coalition for an Ethical Psychology. She participated in the 2005 APA task force that condoned psychologists' involvement in "enhanced" interrogations, and later blew the whistle. She has since established the APA PENS Debate Collection at University of Colorado at Boulder Archives.