World's Largest Group of Psychologists Bans Role in National Security Interrogations

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

By a nearly unanimous vote, the American Psychological Association's Council of Representatives voted Friday to adopt a new policy barring psychologists from participating in national security interrogations. The resolution also puts the APA on the side of international law by barring psychologists from working at Guantánamo, CIA black sites, and other settings deemed illegal under the Geneva Conventions or the U.N. Convention Against Torture, unless they are working directly for the persons being detained or for an independent third party working to protect human rights.

The vote came at the APA's first convention since the release of a report confirming the APA leadership actively colluded with the Pentagon and the CIA torture programs. The sole dissenter was retired Col. Larry James, former top Army intelligence psychologist at Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib. "Democracy Now!" plays highlights from the vote, including APA President-elect Susan McDaniel, and speak with two of the leading dissident psychologists who have been pushing the APA to reverse its stance on interrogations for nearly a decade, Steven Reisner and Stephen Soldz, founding members of the Coalition for an Ethical Psychology. "Democracy Now! also speaks with the president-elect of the British Psychological Society, Peter Kinderman.