(update below) A “primer” from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) seems to encourage the use of isolation to break down prisoners in overseas prisons. Published in 2011, it advocates the use of this coercive measure to break detainees ahead of interrogations, which violates or runs contrary to FBI policy. The American Civil Liberties Union [...]

On Wednesday, Jeffrey Kaye and Jason Leopold of Truthout published an exclusive on a Defense Department (DoD) report on the alleged drugging of prisoners in the custody of the US military that had been declassified. The report put together by the DoD inspector general acknowledged that “powerful antipsychotic and other medications ‘could impair an individual’s [...]

A new proposed “casebook” on psychologist ethics in national security settings, written by the Ethics Committee of the American Psychological Association (APA), tells psychologists that when assessing whether an interrogation technique is abusive or not, they should consider, among other factors, whether there are “data to support that the technique is effective in gathering accurate information.” This determination, which places the needs of the military or intelligence gathering entity above that of the person the psychologist is examining, demonstrates how blatantly unethical it is for psychologists to participate in these interrogations.