Denying and enabling torture require nothing more than refusing to acknowledge evidence that torture occurred or that specific individuals were involved. "Governments, groups, cultures, or individuals need only reflexively dismiss all evidence as questionable, incomplete, misleading, false, or in some other way inadequate.
-- Ken Pope, former Chair of the APA Ethics Committee (1988)
The Ethics Office of the American Psychological Association (APA) has announced that it will not proceed with formal charges against military psychologist Dr. John Leso, despite extensive public documentation that this APA member designed and participated in abusive interrogations at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In fact, Susan Crawford, the convening authority on military commissions at Guantanamo appointed by President George W. Bush, refused to refer the case of detainee Mohammed al Qahtani to trial because she concluded his interrogation met the legal definition of torture. Dr. Leso is known to have been a supervisor and participant in that interrogation.
Because Dr. Leso's documented actions so clearly violated psychological ethics and because this abuse of psychological expertise was undertaken at the behest of governmental authorities, this case represents a landmark test of the independence of psychological ethics and professional standards from governmental and institutional pressures. The APA's failure to pursue charges against Dr. Leso jeopardizes our profession's fundamental ethical principles. In this synopsis we review (1) APA's repeated vow to bring such cases to account; (2) the public record of clearly documented violations by Dr. Leso; (3) APA's justifications for closing the Leso case without formal charges; and (4) our procedural and ethical assessment of the APA's resolution of this case. [1]
1. APA's Vow to Hold Accountable Any and All Psychologists Involved in Abusive Interrogations
In 2005, APA's Ethics Office Director Stephen Behnke stated:
If psychologists have engaged in any activity, and at this point the media reports are long on hearsay and innuendo, short on facts, the American Psychological Association wants the facts. And when we have the facts, we will act on them. And if individuals who are members of our association have acted inappropriately, the APA will address those very directly and very clearly.
Echoing Dr. Behnke and the APA's longstanding prohibitions on psychologists' involvement in abusive treatment, then-APA President Gerald Koocher, like every APA president since, reiterated this assurance:
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Roy Eidelson Social Media Pages: 
Roy Eidelson is a psychologist who studies, writes about, and consults on the role of psychological issues in political, organizational, and group conflict settings. His most recent book is Doing Harm: How the World's Largest Psychological (more...)
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