[Scott
Horton has made a similar point here.]
As Ambinder
reports, the Defense Department now admits that this secret Afghan
prison uses interrogation techniques from the Army Field Manual's infamous Appendix M. This
appendix authorizes abusive techniques,
including sleep deprivation,
sensory deprivation, and "environmental manipulation" [think freezing
someone or blinding light] that often amount to torture.
Consistent with the multitudinous reports of severe abuse in the "black
jail," Ambinder reports that there is a top secret Special Action
Program authorizing DCHC interrogations. As Jeff Kaye pointed out in an emptywheel comment, if
only Appendix M-based techniques -- which are covered by the Army Field
Manual -- are used, why the need for a Special Action Program? Thus, we
must wonder what, exactly, DCHC is doing at Bagram and other sites.
Whatever it is, it apparently isn't something they want us, the public,
to know about.
For those who think that President Obama banned
torture centers like this, think again. Obama's Executive Order only
banned CIA secret prisons. This administration thus apparently
intended from the beginning to maintain its torture facility, only under
a Defense Department rather than CIA label.
Further
information about the black jail is provided in a follow-up post, where
Ambinder provides this description of the "black prison":
"From what information I've been able to gather, the interrogation environment is much like a social science laboratory, with psychologists and experts in human behavior looking for clues to see who might know more than they do, alternating with interrogators trained to ferret out actionable intelligence information." [emphasis added]
If the detention
facility is being run as a "social science laboratory," it raises
concerns that the psychologists and others may be conducting research on
the detainees without these detainees' consent. As a result of the
abusive research of the Nazi doctors and research on poor black men in
this country denied by the US Public Health Service well-known
treatments for syphilis as they got sick and died in the Tuskegee
Syphilis Experiment, informed consent has been a requirement in this
country for all but the most benign research for decades. Thus,
Ambinder's report raises the prospect that detainees in the "black jail"
may be subjects of otherwise banned research procedures.
Wherever psychologists are involved in national security work, links to
the APA are seldom hard to find. In this case, the APA has regularly
lobbied for funding for DCHC while a former top APA research scientist
was until very recently at CIFA and its successor, DCHC, investigating
"deception detection," like that reportedly
occurring inside the "black jail."
Over the years, the APA has
devoted considerable lobbying resources to maintaining Congressional
funding for CIFA. Thus, in a report on APA lobbying for
fiscal year 2009, the APA ignored all the issues regarding corruption
and illegal spying at CIFA as they advocated for protecting the agency's
funding:
"Dr. Boehm-Davis concluded her testimony by noting another APA concern -- the potential loss of invaluable behavioral science programs within DoD's Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA) as it reorganizes and loses personnel strength. APA's testimony urged Congress to provide ongoing funding in the next fiscal year for CIFA's behavioral research programs on cyber security, insider threat, and other counter-terrorism and counter-intelligence operational challenges."
After CIFA was folded into DCHC in the Defense Intelligence Agency, the APA lobbied Congress for money for "behavioral science" to support the DIA's activities, including the counterintelligence work now located in DCHC. Here is a section from the written APA testimony to the US Senate Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense regarding appropriations for the Fiscal Year 2010 budget:
"APA... is concerned with maintaining invaluable
human-centered research programs formerly within DoD's
Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA) now that staff and programming
have been transferred to the Defense Intelligence Agency.Within this
DIA program, psychologists lead intramural and extramural research
programs on counterintelligence issues ranging from models of 'insider
threat' to cybersecurity and detection of deception. These
psychologists also consult with the three military services to translate
findings from behavioral research directly into enhanced
counterintelligence operations on the ground. (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
