On Sat, 18 Apr 2009 11:33:59 -0700 wrote: >JC: >According to an article in the NYTimes, people on the ground >in some of the interrogations expressed quite strongly the view >that they thought they had extracted whatever they could from >the person being questioned. It was the higher powers who >ordered still more aggressive techniques in the belief the person >had more information to offer (it appears nothing significant was >forthcoming, consistent with Mike's earlier comments about ineffectiveness >of torture). Article also refers to participation of psychologists formerly >employed by military. So a couple of other pieces to the exercise: >(1) distance / immediacy and willingness to administer pain again a la >Milgram, and (2) ethics of psychologists being involved in such activities. >See NY Times and Slate pieces at: > http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/18/world/middleeast/18zubaydah.html?ref=todayspaper > > http://www.slate.com/id/2216507/
I saw the NY Times article earlier in the day and was somewhat surprised by the description. In retrospect and after a couple of web searches, I realize that I shouldn't have been. The psychologists that were likely to be involved in the activities are James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen who developed a program involving SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape Program) which was originally developed in North Korea as an interrogation technique and which is used in the U.S. armed forces as a training exercise to prepare military personnel for torture during interrogation. Background regarding Mitchell and Jessen is available from the magazine Vanity Fair, see: http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/07/torture200707?currentPage=2 Jane Meyer's 2008 book "The Dark Side", see: http://books.google.com/books?id=5qD80dbJH3MC&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22Jane+Mayer%22&lr=&num=100#PPA157,M1 or http://tinyurl.com/c4tdjw and http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Degradation_and_manhanding_Document_reveals_US_0717.html The last is noteworthy for claiming that the basis for Mitchell and Jessen's interrogation program was "voodoo science". I admit to coming to this late and only now realize that some members of TiPS were probably trying to tell us something about this before the APA convention last year. It appears that the memos only provide confirmation of activities that were known last year. -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
