Editorial: Interrogations have limits

Thursday, Aug. 23, 2007 | 7:26 a.m.

T he American Psychological Association has joined other medical associations in ruling that certain interrogation techniques used on terrorism suspects in U.S. detention facilities are immoral, psychologically damaging and not effective in extracting useful information.

In a ruling issued during the group's annual meeting on Sunday, the association said it opposes methods such as simulated drowning or "water-boarding," humiliation on sexual or religious grounds, sleep deprivation and the use of mock executions, stress positions, dogs and hoods.

Psychologists still are allowed to work in the U.S. detention facilities, where they serve to protect detainees from inhumane treatment. But they could be stripped of their APA memberships if they participate in planning such abuse or witness use of the barred techniques and fail to intervene . They also must report the incidents.

Because APA membership is a licensing requirement of many state boards, psychologists who break these new rules and lose their professional membership also could lose their licenses to practice.

The American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association have issued similar decisions, The Washington Post reported in a story on Tuesday.

In a statement issued Monday, Stephen Behnke, the APA's ethics director, said the organization has "had a long-standing position that torture and other forms of inhuman and degrading treatment are unethical" and that the new resolution "adds specificity to that prohibition."

Torture is a dubious method of obtaining information about suspected terrorist activity, because it often elicits unreliable or inaccurate information, the association says.

It also is a revolting and unspeakably barbaric method of interrogation that no civilized nation should employ.