MR Original – Media Black-Out Vets for Ron Paul Event

MEDIA ROOTS — Yesterday, 500 fellow veterans and I marched in Washington, D.C. in support of Republican Congressman Ron Paul’s bid for Presidency.  The Veterans for Ron Paul President’s Day event began with two hours of speakers and musical performances at the Washington Monument and was followed by a well-organized march and military procession down 15th Street.

Upon reaching the White House, we promptly did an about-face to symbolically turn our back on the Commander-in-Chief and held a salute while organizer Adam Kokesh, of Adam vs. The Man, presented a folded U.S. flag to represent the death of a soldier.  We held the salute for over eight minutes—one second for every soldier that has committed suicide while President Obama has been in office.  For an additional ten minutes, our diverse company of men and women then stood at parade-rest to pray for each soldier who has died while serving Obama’s so-called ‘War on Terror.’

The successful event pulled over a thousand supporters along with many in-town tourists who were able to witness the historic spectacle.  After the rally and march, there was a sold out after-party and concert with performances by Golden State and Aimee Allen.

RT was one of the few outlets to report on the Veterans for Ron Paul Event

Although the monumental event was a great success for all those in attendance, one glaring failure did occur yesterday, a failure of coverage from the corporate media.

Most news outlets simply didn’t cover the event; and the outlets that did cover it marginalized its significance or omitted important information.  For example, ABC initially downplayed the number of attendees from hundreds who were actually in attendance to only “dozens.”  There was also no mention of event organizer Adam Kokesh in ABC’s report.  Kokesh is a former Marine, Russia Today anchor and New Mexico Congressional candidate, yet he was simply referred to as one “organizer.”  Kokesh hosts the online news show “Adam vs. The Man,” which garners thousands of viewers.

Fortunately, Ben Swann of WXIX is expecting to cover the event in his weekly “Reality Check” segment, in which Kokesh is scheduled to appear.  Swann has previously produced segments critical of the corporate media’s failure to cover Dr. Paul’s consistently strong anti-war campaign.

Oskar Mosco, who participated in yesterday’s event, is a veteran of the U.S. Army and a producer at truth-march.

Photo provided by Danny Panzella.

APA Psychologists Question Interrogation Report

MEDIA ROOTS – Several hundred psychologists, as well as numerous psychological associations around the country, are united in calling for the annulment of the American Psychological Association’s report on Psychological Ethics and National Security (PENS).  The 2005 report is an APA endorsement of the highly suspect intelligence-gathering procedures used in US military detention sites such as Guantánamo Bay and Bagram, Afghanistan.  The demand for its immediate suspension and public review is called not by the APA Board or Ethics Committee, but by its general membership as well as several scholar-activists such as Daniel Ellsberg and Noam Chomsky.

Flaws in the PENS process have been apparent from its inception.  The creation of a presidential task force consisting of nine psychologists was specifically assigned to adopt the official psychological guidelines for interrogation by US intelligence agents.  Unfortunately, the task force was composed primarily of psychologists already working within the military and intelligence communities, and many have been involved in instances of suspected prisoner abuse.  Additionally, PENS was never offered for discussion among the APA membership, the press, or the general public, and it was approved in a highly suspect emergency vote that deviated from standard APA procedures.

The closing of Guantánamo Bay is on hold, and Bagram is expanding in size to incarcerate up to 5,500 suspected ‘terrorists’ by the end of 2012.  Both detention sites do not offer detainees due process as outlined in the Constitution and violate international laws, such as those outlined in the Geneva Conventions.  As these criminal gulags continue to operate unabated, psychologists worldwide are becoming increasingly aware that the APA was simply used as a promotional propaganda tool by the White House in order to justify its rendition and torture program.

MR

***

COALITION FOR AN ETHICAL PSYCHOLOGY – Over the decade since the horrendous attacks of 9/11, the world has been shocked by the specter of abusive interrogations and the torture of national security prisoners by agents of the United States government. While psychologists in the U.S. have made significant contributions to societal welfare on many fronts during this period, the profession tragically has also witnessed psychologists acting as planners, consultants, researchers, and overseers to these abusive interrogations at Guantanamo Bay Detention Center, Bagram Air Base, CIA “black sites,” and elsewhere. Moreover, in the guise of keeping interrogations “safe, legal, ethical and effective,” psychologists were used to provide legal protection for otherwise illegal treatment of prisoners.

The American Psychological Association’s (APA) 2005 Report of the Presidential Task Force on Psychological Ethics and National Security (the PENS Report) is the defining document endorsing psychologists’ engagement in detainee interrogations. Despite evidence that psychologists were involved in abusive interrogations, the PENS Task Force concluded that psychologists play a critical role in keeping interrogations “safe, legal, ethical and effective.” With this stance, the APA, the largest association of psychologists worldwide, became the sole major professional healthcare organization to support practices contrary to the international human rights standards that ought to be the benchmark against which professional codes of ethics are judged.

Read more about the Coalition for an Ethical Psychology’s call for annulling the APA’s PENS Report.

© 2011 Coalition for an Ethical Psychology

***

Photo provided by Flickr user The National Guard.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Reply