Michael G. Gelles, Psy.D., ABPP
4 Professional Drive
Suite 120
Gaithersburg, MD 20879
301.346 5177
niggelles@cs.com

March 14, 2007

Dr. Neil Altman

Dr. Olivia Moorehead-Slaughter

Dear Drs. Altman and Moorehead-Slaughter,

Recently, I learned about the resolution in progress that calls for a moratorium on psychologist involvement in military interrogations conducted at centers for foreign detainees. I felt that it was important to write to you both as a psychologist who for almost twenty years was intimately involved in work related to national security and public safety (I am now no longer in government service), and as a member of the American Psychological Association. I have enormous respect for those who bring a sense of social justice to this issue. For that very reason, I respectfully request that you consider a different perspective on the resolution in progress, from a psychologist whose presence at a detention facility and involvement in interrogation consultations resulted directly in the uncovering of deeply disturbing events.

Based on my active involvement, I was able to bring forth grave concerns to senior leaders about what I had learned. These leaders then changed the methods and procedures used to elicit information. My actions are of public record in the press and in memoranda to senior public officials. My primary concern with the resolution lies in the ramifications if psychologists with appropriate training and professional guidance are not present in these settings. I firmly believe that my presence and active engagement had a significant and positive impact on the manner in which interrogations are conducted.

As you well know, there are very different and competing philosophies regarding what methods should be permissible in eliciting information from detainees. Unfortunately, at times in the past, those who have both conducted and consulted to interrogations and who have worked to develop methods for eliciting information have had little or no training, guidance, or oversight. The results have been catastrophic and the collateral damage far reaching. Interrogations left to those who are not properly trained can lead to drift and result in brutality, which is utterly contrary to the competent and effective methods for eliciting accurate and reliable information employed by those who have the appropriate training and experience.

Having worked with law enforcement, the intelligence community and correctional officers, I am very familiar with the structure and function of detention facilities. I am too aware of how easily aggression can get out of hand, and how the well intentioned can become carried away with emotion and perverse purpose and drift across boundaries, all of which may result in aggressive, violent and humiliating acts to detainees. We know that well trained professionals, clear guidelines, established procedures and scrupulous oversight serve to keep in check aggression and the tendency to over identify with a role and a method. Removing trained professional psychologists from these settings will impact the degree of oversight and inevitably increase the likelihood of abuse, thus having precisely the opposite effect of what occurred as a result of my involvement at Guantanamo Bay.

The need for psychologists to consult in the areas of law enforcement and intelligence will continue in both domestic and foreign settings. The critical question is whether professional psychology, of which APA is the leader, will bring to the debate over interrogations, as well as to the practice of interrogations, a philosophy that leaves no room for abuse, cruelty or humiliation. APA has taken exactly the right position: Abusing anyone for any reason is unethical and antithetical to the very notion of a psychologist. APA's philosophy of interrogation, founded upon the value of building rapport, precludes abusive behavior of any kind. Rather than a reason for APA to withdraw from settings in which interrogations take place, that abuses have taken place is itself a powerful reason, and identifies a professional need, to have APA as a strong and forceful presence and voice in these settings.

Like most psychologists, I am deeply disturbed by the legal framework that has arisen regarding the detainees. I am also profoundly disturbed by the treatment of mentally ill persons in our jails and prisons. Recent media accounts of occurrences in US correctional facilities depict incidents as heinous as those recounted by the media regarding foreign facilities. Our response should not therefore be to withdraw from correctional facilities. Likewise, we must not "throw the baby out with the bath water," but we must rather examine the mistakes that have been made and the abuses that have occurred in interrogation settings, continue to develop guidelines and parameters that direct us professionally, and remain fully engaged with these difficult and complex issues.

My direct experience leads me to conclude that we should remain engaged in interrogations as a persistent voice for the right way to do things. I am deeply concerned for our profession, our communities, and our nation as a whole, should psychologists withdraw from participating in settings as profdsionals who bring value to a broad spectrum of activities and initiatives that, when conducted in a competent and ethical fashion, propagate humane treatment, facilitate the eliciting of accurate and reliable information, and promote peace by preventing acts of violence.

In terms of future APA initiatives, I would strongly support a document that assists psychologists in maintaining the highest ethical standards of our profession. APA has set forth multiple.and clear prohibitions for psychologists consulting to interrogations. Rather than focus on what psychologists cannot do, I would respectfully suggest that it would be more productive for APA to provide guidance that promotes ethical behavior by addressing what psychologists in challenging and ambiguous ethical situations may do to ensure they remain firmly within the bounds of our ethics, and by addressing what we as colleagues can do to support their efforts. Such a positive statement would be affirming of the role that psychologists play and would make a significant contribution to psychologists in this and other areas of work, a contribution that would be especially valuable to our newest members.

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