Transcripts For LINKTV Democracy Now 20240622 : vimarsana.co

Amy showdown at the American Psychological association over the use of psychologists working with the cia and pentagon on interrogations. We will hear from dissident psychologists and Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times author james risen. And we will hear highlights from the first Republican Debate of the 2016 race. Mr. Trump, one of the things people love about you is you speak your mind and you dont use a politicians filter. However, that is not without its downside, particular, when it comes to women. You have called women you dont , andfat pigs, dogs, slobs disgusting animals. R twitter cloud account line only rosie odonnell. Amy all of that and more coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. We are broadcasting from toronto, canada. 10 leading republican president ial candidates faced off in the first debate of the 2016 president ial election thursday night in cleveland. The main topics of the primetime debate included immigration, abortion, the soper claimed Islamic State, and u. S. Health care system. During the debate, donald trump stood by earlier statements that the Mexican Government was sending the bad ones over. People that idea with, that i talked to, they say this is what is happening because our leaders are stupid. Our politicians are stupid. And the Mexican Government is much smarter, much sharper, much more cunning, and they send the bad ones over because they dont want to pay for them, they dont want to take care of them. Why should they do the stupid leaders of the United States will do it for them . And that is what is happening whether you like it or not. Moderator asked donald trump about his commons women he did not like fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals. Youll hear his response later in the right cast. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and kentucky senator rand paul got into heated discussion over nsa surveillance. Standing for the bill of rights and i will continue to stand for the bill of rights. , that is a completely ridiculous answer. I want to collect more records from terrorists, but less records from other people. How are you supposed to know . How are you supposed to get a want. Get a judge to sign the warrant. Amy some described thursdays debate as the roger ailes primary since the broadcaster had so much to do with it. Seven other president ial candidates who did not make the cut participated in debate earlier in the evening. More thes Republican Debate later in the broadcast. In news from washington, d. C. , new York Democratic senator Chuck Schumer has announced he will oppose the iran nuclear deal. Schumer is the third wrecking democrat, one of the leading jewish voices there. Some fear his dissent could pave the way for other democrats to oppose the deal. His announcement comes one day after president obama made his case for the agreement by comparing those who oppose the deal to those who supported the invasion of iraq. Proponents of the agreement told the New York Times thursday they still likely have enough votes to uphold a president ial veto if the republicans move to block the deal. At the measure is blocked by congress. Activists and religious leaders are heading to ferguson, missouri, this weekend to commemorate the death of michael brown, an unarmed African American teenager who was fatally shot by white Police Officer Darren Wilson one year ago sunday. Michael browns body lay in the street for more than four hours after the shooting. His death and the jurys grand jurys decision not to indict Police Officer Darren Wilson led to widespread protests in ferguson and major u. S. Cities, and became a catalyst for the black lives matter movement. The weekends events include marches and a moment of silence midday on sunday. In news from saudi arabia, militants from the selfproclaimed Islamic State have claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack that killed at least 15 people, including a dozen Saudi Security personnel thursday at a mosque. It is the third attack since may in which isil militants have claimed responsibility. Meanwhile in afghanistan, an explosion there and Afghan Army Base killed at least eight people and wounded hundreds in the capital city kabul this morning. The attack comes as the United Nations is reporting civilian casualties in afghanistan are at record high levels this year. A local resident spoke out after the blast. When the blast happened, my children started screaming. All the windows in my house were blown out. My hand was injured. The blast was so powerful. Amy in pakistan, Officials Say two u. S. Drone strikes killed at least four alleged militants thursday. The strikes hit a tribal region of North Waziristan bordering afghanistan where the Pakistan Military has been carrying out an offensive for over a year. In news from bangladesh, a blogger who expressed secular views has been hacked to death in the capital city dhaka. Niloy neel is the fourth secularist blogger to be killed this year, allegedly by suspected islamist militants. No one has been charged in any of the four attacks. And jon stewart bid farewell to the daily show on Comedy Central thursday night after 16 years. The satirical news show transformed the media landscape, revealing and reveling in the politicians and the media bedfellows. Thursday night, stewart said goodbye to his viewers with a warning not to believe misinformation. I say to you, the best defense against bulls vigilance. If you smell something, say something. Amy and those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. We are broadcasting from toronto, canada, the site of the annual convention of the Largest Group of psychologists in the world the American Psychological , association. It the first meeting of the apa since the release of a stunning report confirming the American Psychological Association Leadership actively colluded with the pentagon and the cia, manipulating the organizations policies, meetings and members in order to endorse the torture program. For the past decade, a group of dissident psychologists have protested the use of psychologists to conduct interrogations at cia black sites and guantanamo. For years they were ignored and ridiculed. But that changed with the recent release of the the hoffman report, a 542page independent review commissioned by the apas board of directors. The study undermined the apas repeated denials that some of its 130,000 members were complicit in torture. Following the release, four top apa officials resigned or announced early retirements or were forced out. Today the apas council of representatives are scheduled to vote on a resolution to bar psychologists from participating in interrogations. It is unclear the measure will pass. Ahead of the vote, the coalition for an ethical psychology hosted a town hall meeting here in toronto last night. Speakers included the new yorkbased psychologist steven reisner, a leading critic of the apas policies and founder of the coalition for an ethical psychology. Right now there are psychologists at once on a moped guantanamore not bay, and theyre not only doing therapy. Psychologists are involved in the forcefeeding of detainees who are on hunger strikes. The forcefeeding of detainees who are on a voluntary hunger strikes is a violation of international law. Nobody has called out those psychologists or any of the other Health Professionals to say, you are in violation of international law, you are participating in causing or perpetuating harm. So we have to make sure that apa goes from leading us into the dark side, leaving us into the torture room, leading us into the abuse of psychology for abuse, we have to turn apa to leading the way out. Out of the interrogation room. Out of the violation of International Human rights. Psychologists have got to be the leaders now in transforming the role of Health Professionals away from standing by or perpetuating human rights fire relations into holding a standard that says no, we will not be present at places where this happens. If we are, we will protest it and leave. It has to be a clear policy which we have written. Scott churchill, jeanmarie arrigo, with my help, have written a very conference of policy comprehensive policy. It prohibits psychologists from being present at sites that violate international law, from participating in national interrogations, from overseeing National Security detention sites when they exist to promote intelligence gathering or interrogations. This is a good policy. But tomorrow, the American Psychological Association Council of representatives asked to vote on this policy. And i can tell you, its passage is by no means assured. That is steven reisner, Founding Member of the coalition for an ethical psychology speaking last night at a town hall meeting here in toronto. The a mac and Psychological Association is holding its annual convention here. The American Psychological association is holding its annual image and here. About 6 00 this money, i spoke with the surprise winner james risen who is come to cover this meeting as well. He is extensively reported on the apas ties to the cia and pentagons torture program and he is covering the meeting that is taking place today. I asked him to talk about the significance of the apa meeting and todays vote that is happening as we broadcast by the apas council of representatives on barring psychologists from participating in cia and military interrogations. This is a very important meeting for the apa unforced and for the psychological profession. Where they are going to vote today or at least they are expected to vote today on whether to allow whether to prohibit psychologists on ethical grounds from remaining involved in any National Security interrogations, including those that are now being conducted were under the Obama Administration, noncourse of interrogations. So it is a very sharp break from their past practices and it is in response to an investigation that found collusion between psychologists in the Bush Administration on interrogations. It is not care how this vote will go. Talk about the factions within the American Psychological association. Some have been forced out and some have resigned. But still, it is not clear which direction the vote will go. Right. There are some people who have. Pposed the proposed ban i think are some groups within the psychological profession who are more involved with government, either military or other agencies amy Like Division 19 . Right. And some of those people believe that this goes too far, that it goes beyond just a break with the reported collusion in the Bush Administration, and now they think this is kind of impeding on their turf of. Nvolvement with the military and so it will be interesting to see how far that debate goes, whether there are enough people who support this ban versus those who believe it goes too far. Amy you have written extensively about how u. S. Psychologists involved in these Interrogation Programs shielded the torture program. Explain. Well, the hoffman report, which came out about a month ago, i guess, now, basically described the ways in which very subtle and nuanced ways that both individual prominent psychologists and staff and officials from the American Psychological association worked kind of behind the scenes over the years to make sure that even as the apa said they were opposed to torture, that they created policies that made sure that psychologists could stay involved with the bush your Interrogation Programs by the cia and the undergone. So it is a really interesting report that kind of detail the very subtle way back room ways the people involved would or oner to kind of, point, at the same time theyre saying theyre opposed to abusive tactics and , was to abusive, making sure they did not do anything to block psychologists from being involved. So i thought the hoffman report really capture the subtleties and nuances of how that happened really well. Amy what else was most stunning to about this report . It actually was commissioned by the American Psychological association. Yeah, to me, what was interesting was that the apa board entered into this report, they hired david hoffman, the chicago lawyer, to do this report, at the time they were saying you know, there were these accusations out there, but we dont believe them, so were going to have we are going to get a report. And i dont think the board when they hired hoffman expected to get such a scathing report because i have talked to members of the board since then, and they of said they were shocked by the findings of the hoffman report. And i think that is what is really driving this vote today is how shocked the leadership of the apa is by the findings and manyhey now kind of have of many senior members of the apa i think have been issuing me a call to mea culpas, saying ones theyve ignored for many years were right and now we have to recognize that. Amy a lot of this came from your book in revealing emails that you got a hold of. Explain what you found, james risen. It was interesting, my book pay any price came out last year. I had gotten the emails of a Behavioral Scientist who was a very interesting character who died in 2008. He was a researcher at the Rand Corporation in santa monica and then later at a defense contractor. Before he died, he reached out to Human Rights Organization and a human rights investigator Nathaniel Raymond of physicians for human rights. He seemed, from talking to nathaniel, he and some other people, it seemed like he wanted to talk about what the cia was doing in terms of interrogations. It was never clear exactly what his role was to either nathaniel or anyone else, but he clearly knew things. Toafter he died, i was able gain access to his email archive going back many years. And it didnt show he had any kind of smoking gun with revelation about the bush and or the ciaion Interrogation Program, but what it showed was he had connections with all caps of people in washington, especially the intersection between the Intelligence Community and the psychological profession. In particular, there were a lot of emails in which he was copied between people at the cia and the American Psychological association and the Defense Department and others, and it all showed these kind of it revealed there had been some effort behind the scenes to kind of the apasnature policy on interrogation after abu ghraib in the scandal broke and the scandal broke. It was a cooperation or coordination on their policy efforts in 05 to deal with Interrogation Programs or policy in which cia, pentagon, and others were taking roles and how that was taking shape. Written and one of your latest reports in the New York Times about the Obama Administration Officials Saying that in interviews that psychologist still play roles in the National Security interrogations in terrorism cases. Yeah, the main Interrogation Program for high valued terrorism targets is to i guess they call it the highvalue detainee Interrogation Program, which is led by the fbi, but it also has people from the Defense Department and the cia. Out group actually deploys when they capture somebody overseas or they are involved sometimes when someone or highvalue person is arrested here. Normal,s outside the you know, kind of legal process, in some cases or domestic criminal investigation, it can be outside that, and so that is considered a National Security Interrogation Program. There is also psychologists at guantanamo and they still play roles in terms of what i was told was at guantanamo, if a detainee wants to talk to someone, psychologist would be involved. So they are still involved in various ways in the Interrogation Programs, so it will be interesting