SALON– One of the most intense scandals the field of psychology has faced over the last decade
is the involvement of several of its members in enabling Bush’s
worldwide torture regime. Numerous health professionals worked for the
U.S. government to help understand how best to mentally degrade and
break down detainees. At the center of that controversy
was — and is — Dr. Larry James. James, a retired Army colonel, was
the Chief Psychologist at Guantanamo in 2003, at the height of the
abuses at that camp, and then served in the same position at Abu Ghraib
during 2004.
Today, Dr. James circulated an excited email announcing, “with great pride,” that he has now been selected to serve on the “White House Task Force entitled Enhancing the Psychological Well-Being of The Military Family.” In his new position, he will be meeting at the White House with Michelle Obama and other White House officials on Tuesday.
For his work at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, Dr. James was the subject of two formal ethics complaints in the two states where he is licensed to practice: Louisiana and Ohio. Those complaints — 50 pages long and full of detailed and well-documented allegations — were filed by the International Human Rights Clinic of Harvard Law School’s Human Rights Program, on behalf of veterans, mental health professionals and others. The complaints detailed how James “was the senior psychologist of the Guantánamo BSCT, a small but influential group of mental health professionals whose job it was to advise on and participate in the interrogations, and to help create an environment designed to break down prisoners.” Specifically:
During his tenure at the prison, boys and men were threatened with rape and death for themselves and their family members; sexually, culturally, and religiously humiliated; forced naked; deprived of sleep; subjected to sensory deprivation, over-stimulation, and extreme isolation; short-shackled into stress positions for hours; and physically assaulted. The evidence indicates that abuse of this kind was systemic, that BSCT health professionals played an integral role in its planning and practice. . . .
Writing in 2009, Law Professor Bill Quigley and Deborah Popowski, a Fellow at the Harvard Law School Human Rights Program, described James’ role in this particularly notorious incident:
In 2003, Louisiana psychologist and retired Col. Larry James watched behind a one-way mirror in a US prison camp while an interrogator and three prison guards wrestled a screaming, near-naked man on the floor.
The prisoner had been forced into pink women’s panties, lipstick and a wig; the men then pinned the prisoner to the floor in an effort “to outfit him with the matching pink nightgown.” As he recounts in his memoir, “Fixing Hell,” Dr. James initially chose not to respond. He “opened [his] thermos, poured a cup of coffee, and watched the episode play out, hoping it would take a better turn and not wanting to interfere without good reason …”
Although he claims to eventually find “good reason” to intervene, the Army colonel never reported the incident or even so much as reprimanded men who had engaged in activities that constituted war crimes.
Read full article about Top Bush-era Psychologist Obama’s Newest Appointment.
Written by Glenn Greenwald
© 2011 Salon
Photo by flickr user hermmermferm
Overall, this is excellent adcvie regarding dealing with campaigns and office-holders.Sorry, but for me, the so-called meaningful public option just isn’t enough. I believe in an expanded and improved no-gaps-no-loopholes Medicare for All single-payer plan. I refuse to settle for less. And Obama has promised to be an advocate for LGBT Americans. He isn’t. His work on the economy (housing, employment, financial regulation), on energy independence, on environmental regulation and protection has been just as underwhelming. These areas must also improve dramatically so or I won’t be volunteering for Obama again.I held my nose and voted for him in spite of his often-stated stance on Afghanistan. I do not understand why people are ever surprised by Obama’s Afghanistan policies. He was very plain about them during the campaign.Thank you for the links. It never hurts to make it painfully clear that ones financial and physical support are contingent upon the office-holder delivering the goods on the issues that matter. I do so at every chance I get.There aren’t enough like Lee. like Kucinich, like Weiner, like Grayson, like Feingold, like Boxer, like Sanders reliably left-of-center and populist. (AFAIK; please correct me if I am wrong.)As I posted to another article I do not think that there has been enough pressure brought to bear, repeatedly and consistently, upon Obama. To quote Franklin Delano Roosevelt, I agree with you. I want to do it. Now make me do it. (to organizers presenting him with a list of demands.) During the Great Depression, it was only the concerted pressure of activist citizens, often including civil disobedience, that allowed Roosevelt to make the changes we now take for granted. It will take that same sort of pressure on our Representatives, our Senators and Obama to get the changes in health care, financial regulation, foreign and war policy, energy policy and environmental regulation that we so desperately need.We must make then do it. And only repeated pressure, consistent pressure, unremitting pressure will make enough of an impression. Absent that pressure from the left, almost every political office-holder will tack to the right. Which of your elected officials did you call/email/fax today? Who is on the receiving end of your unremitting pressure? I contact at least 3 office-holders daily.If not us, who? If not now, when?
This is really unbelievable; it’s worse than keeping Gates on as sec of defense. What is Obama thinking??? Apparently, he’s not….