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Supporting
community-based activism COMMENTS
ON OUR PETITION CAMPAIGN: "Thanks so much for organizing an outlet for us to express our outrage at the misuse of psychological knowledge! It is essential to the integrity of our profession that psychologists make a strong stand against this abuse! It is our responsibility to acknowledge the humanity in people worldwide." "There is no place in a community of healers for those who misuse their skills to create suffering. Torturers should be identified as such, and have no place in any professional organization that I wish to be a part of." "Thank you for putting this petition together. I am deeply disturbed by the APA's position, and resigned when I did not even receive a form letter in response to the letter I sent detailing my concerns. Considerable psychological research...makes it clear that consulting to interrogation cannot be a neutral activity, and military research exists...demonstrating that friendly, relationship-based questioning yields more and more useful information than interrogation and torture." "Have we not learned anything from the Gulag, and from concentration camp doctors?" "No hay nada mas doloroso que poner nuestra profesión al servicio de estados que solo saben maltratar su elemento humano." "I was so happy to see this petition...I have been considering resigning my membership in APA. It's nice to know that there are other psychologists who aren't turning a blind eye to the horrors that our government and its corporate allies are perpetrating in many parts of the world." "America has historically been the land of the free and the home of the brave. A people whose government ascribes to military use of torture is not free, and the approval of torture is not brave. The U.S. cannot under any circumstances begin the slippery slide down the slope of state-sponsored terrorism -- whether of civilians or prisoner militants." "Muchas gracias por todo el esfuerzo para mantener la ética en un mundo donde la crueldad y el mercantilismo pretenden adueñarse de las conciencias. La tortura produce graves impactos psicológicos pero también lo hacen las políticas economicas que llevan a millones a la pobreza. Es hora que las personas responsables sean no sólo denunciadas sino penalizadas por sus acciones." "Thanks so much for sending this on! I continue to be shocked that we are not marching in the streets in outrage over these issues." "The abusive implications of all this are overwhelming to me, and unbelievable. I'm so sorry to think this email would ever need to be sent, but so thankful you sent this for those who cannot speak for themselves." "La experiencia nos muestra una vez mas como la tortura degrada al victimario y a la sociedad en la que torturar se justifica en nombre del bien comun. Tambien nos muestra como la dignidad de las victimas resplandece casi siempre con luz propia a pesar del desamparo y la humillacion. Gracias por esta iniciativa de esperanza y dignidad." "There must be no exceptions: psychologists may not help authorities in coercive interrogation, and doing so is a clear breach of the ethics of the profession." "I have been appalled to learn that psychologists and other mental health professionals are and have been involved in abuse of prisoners and, further yet, the abuse of people tortured in various ways…It is inhuman at the very best and it is degrading to the mental health professions, being the antithesis of their purposes." "Me parece inconsebible que la profesión y su ejercicio puedan llegar a niveles de degradación en el trato de los seres humanos, ademas de la falta de compromiso politico por las causas humanas que dignifican la razón de ser de la especie humana." "I am a member of APA, and strongly urge investigation of these issues." "Thank you for providing this opportunity for mental health professionals to express our concerns." "Solo se sostiene la credibilidad de una organizacion que representa las practicas de una disciplina cuando esta defiende el ejercicio etico de ellas." "U.S. mistreatment of prisoners contradicts all we stand for as a nation, and is a disgrace." "I am deeply disturbed and outraged at the continuing evidence of torture by the U.S. military and, now, mental health professionals as well. This needs to be investigated and stopped...Civilized society took a principled stance when the nations wrote and signed the Geneva Conventions. These were sound laws and standards for the protection of everyone. I would not want our people tortured as prisoners of war or 'enemy combatants,' and do not want to send a message to the world that it is OK to do so because we, in the U.S., have found a way to justify it...As a helping professional, I am appalled that members of my field have engaged in such behavior." "As a mental health professional, I am appalled by these practices. This is not what my profession is supposed to do with our skills." "La psicologia tiene la mision de controburir al desarrollo de la humanidad, de la vida; no para destruirla." "Through my clinical work, I care for refugee/asylum victims of torture. I have very strong concerns about U.S. treatment of prisoners." "I lived through South Africa's apartheid period, and am very familiar with the effects of detention without trial, solitary confinement and torture as a local expert on these matters. Detention without trial in solitary confinement has serious consequences for mental health. I know this from interviews with many former detainees. Solitary confinement without recourse to the law and being held incommunicado are internationally recognized as forms of torture. America has abrogated its responsibilities as a nation that professes to advance human rights. In refusing to sign up to and not complying with numerous international human rights instruments the US Government continues to act as a rogue state. This is a grave disappointment to all those who hold these freedoms dear." "Nuestra disciplina trabaja por la salud y bienestar de las personas y nunca se puede tolerar que se convierta en un negocio que sostenga la injusticia y la agresion a los derechos humanos. Defender la etica de nuestras practicas es fundamental." "We must act morally. Torture should never be condoned." "En el mundo abría paz si cuando se convocase a una guerra nadie acudiese." "It's deplorable that our military and mental health professionals become involved in such behavior. But I believe it is a manifestation of the torture that has become commonplace in so many homes in the form of child and spouse abuse. If we are to stop such behavior during times of war, we must attack its origin in the children." "As a member of the APA I am very concerned about the misuse of psychology for the inhumane treatment of prisoners. If the APA fails to take a stronger stand on this issue, I will reconsider my membership." "Being a clinical psychologist myself, I'm quite appalled to read that psychologists are using their knowledge for such nefarious purposes." "Assisting in coercive and degrading interrogations should be beyond the pale for psychologists." "Excelente campaña, en los momentos más acuciosos de la búsqueda de paz en Colombia. Ayudennos a civilizar la contienda." "I have been stunned to hear what interrogations are allowed by current standards. Let us not stoop to lemming-like thinking and join the Nazis in the history of maltreatment with careless disregard for the lives and well-being of others." "Ruego encarecidamente a los profesionales civiles no presten sus servicios en esa cruel tarea." "I support our troops, but the actions of some of the people in my government and military have been beyond deplorable. The laws created as a result of the Geneva Conventions were generated not to end wars, but to make sure that they are carried out in a civilized manner (i.e. no terrorist attacks, torture, or other inhumane treatment). I find it disturbing that we are breaking the laws of the Geneva Convention in order to enforce the humanitarian laws of the Geneva Convention." "As our political representatives and, in the case of APA, our professional representatives, you should all be ashamed at not taking a clear stand for basic human rights and against psychologists being prostituted in the name of so-called security. As Ben Franklin stated, 'He who gives up his freedom for security deserves neither'." "Dejemos de ser tan hipócritas, se tortura en las comisarías, en las cárceles, se ejerce un trato degradante por parte de los policías de todas las administraciones. Ojala se exigiera titulación superior para entrar a trabajar de policía o de militar en el ejército." "Nothing condones torture, especially torture endorsed and enacted by government. I hope we can be as firm in our rejection of these disgusting practices, as the US administration has been in defending them." "As a concerned American and a psychologist, I strongly support the signed petition. We must all take responsibility, inform each other, and take positive steps to correct injustices for our country, the world, and future generations." "Professional psychologists or other mental health professionals willingly participating in any form of dehumanizing activity (much less torture) betrays every last principle of the APA Ethical Standards and should be condemned and responded to in the strongest possible way. Our science is not to be used to harm, only to help. There are no exceptions, ever." "As a member of the APA PENS Task Force, whose final report fell short of the appropriate APA response to psychologists' involvement in coercive interrogation, I strongly support these petitions." "The role of psychology must be in better developing our capacities for peaceful resolutions to conflict, and our skill in cross-cultural and interpersonal communication. To use psychology to injure or torture is in my professional and personal estimation a miscarriage of all that we are sworn to uphold and provide: to bring help to those who suffer." "Unless this action is taken, I will withdraw my membership in the American Psychological Association." "I cannot believe that psychologists would condone such behavior. Fear of terrorism is not a legitimate excuse. There is no legitimate excuse." "I am astonished and dismayed that the organization I value so deeply is represented by an APA President who seems both incompetent and immoral in his views about psychologists and torture." "I am appalled by the suicides at Guantanamo, a quite predictable outcome of the methods used. Can we do anything?" "Hearing the APA President's duplicitous comments about psychologists participating in the abuse of human beings for a 'public' good is disturbing and nauseating. Dr. Koocher's ethical judgment is essentially impaired, and he should be held accountable for justifying the prostitution of the profession to further dubious -- at best -- government policies that violate the Geneva Conventions and may be war crimes." "Psychologists should assist and support the torture victims, not torture. This is such an endless disgrace! Unbelievable!" "Torture is profoundly immoral, and against all Christian principals." "A violation of both my and of the Association's ethical standards." "As a member of the APA and a community-based therapist with children and families, I am disgusted with the APA's position on mental health professionals being involved in interrogations of individuals detained by our military." "The performance of the APA is a disgrace and I would resign. Unfortunately, I need their insurance program to stay in practice." "Anyone who holds membership in the American Psychological Association faces a profound moral chanllenge. Unless there is a change in the leadership, resignation is the only ethical choice. Then, the next, higher challenge is to actively protest against torture and the illegal war and say will millions in the peace movement, "Not in our name!" "I've been looking for ways to express my opinion. Psychologists should not be involved in interrogations in any way!" "Quisiera rechazar de la forma más categórica la utilización de profesionales del área de la salud mental en actos de represión y tortura de cualquier indole."
"Thank you for this courageous and moral ethical effort. You have my fullest support. The APA needs to take a more visible leadership on this, as well as on other ethical issues within the community." "Mental health professionals are entrusted with their training so that they can serve and help to heal their fellow human beings -- not torture them!" "I am deeply concerned about psychologists' participation in the torture of prisoners. Psychology should be used for the welfare of human beings, not to serve the current needs of any government." "APA claims it is dedicated to the advancement of human welfare. By colluding with any part of the U.S. government's 'disappearing' of suspects into Guantanamo and its like, our organization is showing an official indifference to the rule of law, to democratic rights, and to the potential psychic trauma visited upon detainees and their families, whose only crime may well have been getting swept up in the wrong place at the wrong time."
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