Friday 30 October 2009
by: William Fisher, t r u t h o u t | Report
The state board responsible for licensing - and disciplining - psychologists in Louisiana is "fighting awfully hard to
turn a blind eye to serious allegations of abuse" brought against one of its members, who is being accused of complicity
in beatings, religious and sexual humiliation, rape threats and painful body positions during his service as a senior
adviser on interrogations for the US military in Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib.
That is the view expressed to Truthout by Deborah Popowski, cooperating attorney with the Center for Constitutional
Rights (CCR), part of the legal team representing Dr. Trudy Bond, an Ohio-based psychologist, who is suing the Louisiana
State Board of Examiners of Psychologists to compel it to investigate the behavior of Louisiana psychologist and retired
US Army Col. Dr. Larry C. James, a former high-ranking adviser on interrogations for the US military in Guantanamo Bay
and Abu Ghraib.
"We wish the Board would devote its resources to investigating unethical conduct instead. Everyone, including the people
of Louisiana, would be better served," she told Truthout.
The chairperson of the Board, Dr. Jillandra Rovaris, who also chairs the complaints committee, did not respond to
telephone calls or emails from Truthout, seeking comment and clarification.
Popowski says that, according to his own statements, Dr. James played an influential role in both the policy and
day-to-day operations of interrogations and detention at the prison camps. She claims that publicly available
information shows that "while Dr. James was at Guantanamo, abuse in interrogations was widespread, and cruel and inhuman
treatment was official policy."
In February 2008, Dr. Bond filed a complaint against Dr. James before the Board, the agency that issued and now
regulates his psychology license. Dr. Bond alleged that Dr. James breached professional ethics by violating
psychologists' duties to do no harm, to protect confidential information and to obtain informed consent, and she called
on the Board to investigate whether action should be taken against Dr. James.
Dr. Bond's lawyers contend that the Board summarily refused to investigate her complaint, claiming that the statute of
limitations had run, despite what they say is conclusive information to the contrary. Dr. Bond then filed suit against
the Board in Louisiana's 19th Judicial District Court, which, in July 2009, dismissed her case without looking at the
merits. Now, in a brief before the First Circuit Court in Baton Rouge, Dr. Bond argues that the District Court should
have reviewed the Board's "clearly wrong legal decision."
Said Dr. Bond, "The five psychologists on the Louisiana Board were given plenty of credible evidence, but they chose not
to investigate the head intelligence psychologist of prison camps notorious for their use of psychological torture. I
don't think Louisiana lawmakers intended to give five fellow professionals total, unchecked power to make arbitrary
decisions that deeply affect the public welfare."
Dr. Bond told Truthout, "I began reading of the role of psychologists at detention sites such as Guantanamo and was
horrified when the American Psychological Association, by way of the infamous PENS report in 2005, determined that the
actions of the BSCT psychologists were ethical."
She added, "In his biographical statement for the PENS report, Larry James stated that he was the 'Chief Psychologist
for the Joint Intelligence Group at GTMO, Cuba' starting in January 2003. When the Camp Delta Standard Operating
Procedure Manual (dated February, 2003 and implemented March 27, 2003) was released in November of 2007 and included
behavioral management of prisoners that violated our psychological ethics codes, that same ethics code required that I
report such violations to the licensing board to be investigated. My complaint to the Louisiana Board of Psychologists
was dated 2/29/08."
Allegations of abuse during Dr. James's January to May 2003 deployment include beatings, religious and sexual
humiliation, rape threats and painful body positions.
Canadian citizen Omar Khadr, who is still imprisoned in Guantanamo, is one of the prisoners who has alleged brutal
treatment in the spring of 2003, when he was only 16 years old.
Khadr was captured by American forces at the age of 15 following a four-hour firefight with militants in the village of
Ayub Kheyl, Afghanistan. He has spent seven years in the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, charged with war crimes and
providing support to terrorism after allegedly throwing a grenade that killed a US soldier.
A Canadian citizen born in Toronto, he is the youngest prisoner held in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp by the United
States and has been frequently referred to as a child soldier. In April 2009, the Federal Court of Canada ruled that the
Canadian Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms made it obligatory for the government to immediately demand Khadr's
return. After a hearing before the Court of Appeals produced the same result, the government announced they would argue
their case before the Supreme Court of Canada. The Supreme Court is expected to hear the case next month.
Dr. James was also stationed in Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison in 2004 and returned to Guantanamo in 2007. In 2008, he was
named dean of the School of Professional Psychology at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio.
The CCR says that, as chief psychologist of the Joint Intelligence Group and a senior member of the Behavioral Science
Consultation Team (BSCT) at Guantanamo, Dr. James had access to the confidential medical records of people he was
charged with exploiting for intelligence.
It adds that, according to former Guantanamo interrogators, BSCTs used information from patients' records to help
interrogators increase the patients' psychological duress, including by exploiting their fears. The very purpose of
these mental health professional teams, the interrogators said, was to help "break" the prisoners. Dr. James denies that
claim, but an extensive government paper trail supports the interrogators' accounts, the organization contends.
The so-called "Biscuit Teams" have sparked controversy ever since their existence became public. The actions taken by
team members have called into question the appropriate behavior for physicians, psychologists, and other health care
professionals who are team members.
The take by the Center for Constitutional Rights is, "Despite their universally recognized duty to do no harm, doctors
and psychologists have played a key role in the United States government's policy of torture in its overseas prisons.
Some have crafted and justified torture tactics, inflicted pain, overseen abuse and enabled and covered up cruel
treatment."
The group adds, "Freedom of Information Act litigation and a US Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) inquiry into the
treatment of detainees have yielded, shed light on, the specific role of military intelligence psychologists and
psychiatrists at the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba. The names and licensing information of several individuals
who may have been involved in prisoner abuse are publicly known. Yet, when presented with credible information that
licensees within their jurisdiction may have committed gross breaches of ethics, state licensing boards have refused to
take action. To date, not one health professional has been held accountable for their role in torture."
Dr. Stephen Soldz, a psychoanalyst, psychologist, public health researcher and faculty member at the Boston Graduate
School of Psychoanalysis is among numerous professionals who have weighed in on the Bond suit.
He has written, "Former Army Col. Larry James, now Dean of the School of Professional Psychology at Wright State
University in Ohio, was Chief Psychologist with the Joint Intelligence Group and a member of the Behavioral Science
Consultation Team [BSCT] at Guantanamo from January till May, 2003. Official documents and press and detainee accounts
raise serious questions as to whether Dr. James aided, participated in, or looked away from the numerous human rights
abuses occurring at Guantanamo during that time."
He continues, "Psychologist Trudy Bond has filed ethics complaints against James with the American Psychological
Association and the Louisiana Board of Psychology. Both have declined to investigate, as has every health professional
association or state licensing board with which complaints of Guantanamo or other detainee abuse have been raised or
filed. The ethics officials of the health professions appear to be taking a 'see no evil, hear no evil, investigate no
evil' approach, making a mockery of the concept of professional ethics. While the American Psychological Association and
other professional associations have issued pious statements against torture and detainee abuse, the clearly do not see
pursuing accountability for those health professionals who aided Bush administration abuses as part of their
responsibility."
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