Rolling Up a Criminal Enterprise

The hornbook method is to get the guys at the lowest level. You build a case against them and then get them to roll over on their bosses. Wash, rinse, repeat until you get to the top dogs.

Which may be how we start to hold our own war criminals accountable.

The largest association of psychologists in the United States is on the brink of a crisis, the Guardian has learned, after an independent review revealed that medical professionals lied and covered up their extensive involvement in post-9/11 torture. The revelation, puncturing years of denials, has already led to at least one leadership firing and creates the potential for loss of licenses and even prosecutions.

For more than a decade, the American Psychological Association (APA) has maintained that a strict code of ethics prohibits its more than 130,000 members to aid in the torture of detainees while simultaneously permitting involvement in military and intelligence interrogations. The group has rejected media reporting on psychologists’ complicity in torture; suppressed internal dissent from anti-torture doctors; cleared members of wrongdoing; and portrayed itself as a consistent ally against abuse.

Now, a voluminous independent review conducted by a former assistant US attorney, David Hoffman, undermines the APA’s denials in full – and vindicates the dissenters.

I have to wonder, Gentle Readers, whether or not the American Medical Association is going to follow along. Because it wasn't just shrinks overseeing torture, there were physicians involved, as well.

Both can be pressured through their licenses.

But I don't think that this country has the stones to clean up its own mess. Oh, we'll work to prosecute war criminals from Serbia or Liberia or wherever, but our own war criminals will get a pass.