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<DIV><FONT size=2><FONT size=3>"<SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-STYLE: italic">Never do anything against
conscience even if the state demands it</SPAN>" </FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2><FONT size=3>Albert Einstein </FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>
<P><STRONG><EM>Let the APA leadership know that we will not tolerate
collaboration with detainee abuse. Psychology must once again become a
profession based upon fundamental ethical principles.</EM></STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG><EM> </EM><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: small; COLOR: brown"><FONT color=#0000ff size=4>Come Join
Boston Psychologists for an Ethical APA</FONT></SPAN></STRONG></P>
<P align=center><FONT color=#ff0000><STRONG>Rally at the American Psychological
Association Annual Convention</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P align=center><FONT color=#ff0000><STRONG>Protest Psychologists’ Involvement
in Abusive Interrogations and Illegal Detention</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P align=center><FONT color=#ff0000><STRONG><FONT color=#0000ff>Where:</FONT>
Plaza at front entrance of the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center,
</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P align=center><FONT color=#ff0000><STRONG>415 Summer St.,
Boston</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><STRONG><FONT
color=#ff0000> <FONT
color=#0000ff>When:</FONT> Saturday, August 16<SUP>th</SUP>,
12:00-2:00</FONT></STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>Via Subway (MBTA Red Line): <BR></STRONG>Exit at the South Station
stop, and go up one flight of stairs. Take the MBTA Silver line SL1, SL2 or SL3
to the World Trade Center stop.<BR>Take the elevator up to Level 2. Take a left
onto World Trade Center Ave, and the BCEC will be directly infront of
you.<BR></P>
<P><FONT size=2>Background:</FONT></P></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>The Am Psychological Assoc will have their convention here in
Boston in mid August-- psychologists from</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>all over the country will be attending. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Within the APA a dedicated group of psychologists</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>including local activist and psychologist, Stephen Soldz, are
calling on the APA to forbid</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>their members from cooperating in any way in
torture. So far they have not been successful</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>in convincing the majority of the membership that this is the
moral position to take.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#ff0000 size=2><STRONG>We in Boston will have a unique chance
to influence the members of the APA on Saturday, Aug 16,</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#ff0000><FONT size=2><STRONG>by attending the noon Rally at the
Boston convention center, 215 Summer St, and letting the participants
</STRONG></FONT><FONT size=2><STRONG>know that we abhor our government's use of
torture, and that we ask the APA members to listen </STRONG></FONT><FONT
size=2><STRONG>to their consciences and not cooperate in any way with these
practices.</STRONG></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Here is a moment where our voices will be heard -- unlike
demonstrations where the press ignores us</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>and we are left wondering if we were talking only to ourselves
-- this rally will be seen by psychologists</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>nation wide.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>It promises to be a memorable event, with speakers from a
number of organizations including</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Physicians for Human Rights; Jazz/Blues musicians; and a
film crew from France.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Hope to see you there!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>From Stephen Soldz:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=046014421-04082008>Folks, attached is a
flyer for the Rally at the APA in Boston on Saturday August 16, 12:00-2:00.
Please post these aanywhere appropriate and give to any colleagues who might
consider attending. </SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=046014421-04082008></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=046014421-04082008>The flyer can also
be downloaded online at: <A
href="http://psychoanalystsopposewar.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/flyer1.pdf">http://psychoanalystsopposewar.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/flyer1.pdf</A> or
at my blog.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=046014421-04082008></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=046014421-04082008>The information is
also available here: <A
href="http://psychoanalystsopposewar.org/blog/2008/07/30/protest-at-the-american-psychological-association-saturday-august-16/">http://psychoanalystsopposewar.org/blog/2008/07/30/protest-at-the-american-psychological-association-saturday-august-16/</A></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=046014421-04082008></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=046014421-04082008>Thanks so much. And
looking forward to seeing many of you there. </SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=046014421-04082008>
<P align=left><FONT size=2>Stephen Soldz<BR>Director, Center for Research,
Evaluation, and Program Development<BR>Boston Graduate School of
Psychoanalysis<BR>1581 Beacon St.<BR>Brookline, MA 02446<BR><A
href="mailto:ssoldz@bgsp.edu">ssoldz@bgsp.edu</A><BR></FONT></P><FONT size=2>
<DIV class="entry single">
<H2><A
href="http://psychoanalystsopposewar.org/blog/2008/07/30/protest-at-the-american-psychological-association-saturday-august-16/">Protest
at the American Psychological Association, Saturday, August 16</A></H2>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: left">Please join us. This is an issue for all concerned
citizens, not just psychologists. All are welcome.</P>
<P align=center><STRONG><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: small; COLOR: brown"><FONT
size=2>Come join <EM>Boston Psychologists for an Ethical
APA</EM></FONT></SPAN></STRONG></P>
<P align=center><STRONG>Rally at the American Psychological Association Annual
Convention</STRONG></P>
<P align=center><STRONG>Protest Psychologists’ Involvement in Abusive
Interrogations and Illegal Detention</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>Where:</STRONG> Plaza at front entrance of the Boston Convention and
Exhibition Center, 415 Summer St., Boston</P>
<P><STRONG>When: </STRONG>Saturday,<STRONG> </STRONG>August
16<SUP>th</SUP>, 12:00-2:00</P>
<P>Voice your outrage at the APA’s continued acceptance of psychologists’
participation in Bush administration interrogations and detention centers
where human rights and international law are continually violated.
<EM>“There is no right way to do something wrong.”</EM></P>
<P>This issue is of increasing concern to all citizens but of particular
importance to us as psychologists because it violates our primary ethical
obligation to “Do No Harm.” Our complicity in the current administration’s
“privileged” war on terror is now well-documented.</P>
<P
style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><STRONG>Co-Sponsors:</STRONG><BR><EM>Psychoanalysts
for Social Responsibility (Div. 39 S9)</EM><BR><EM>Coalition for an Ethical
Psychology</EM><BR><EM>Withholdapadues.com</EM><BR><EM>Psychologists for Social
Responsibility (PsySR)</EM><BR><EM>Psychologists for an Ethical
APA</EM><BR><EM>Monterey</EM><EM> Bay</EM><EM> Psychological
Association</EM><BR><EM>Physicians for Human Rights</EM><BR><EM>[More being
added]</EM></P>
<P align=center><STRONG>Speakers include:</STRONG><BR><EM>Steven
Reisner</EM><BR><EM>Ghislaine Boulanger</EM><BR><EM>Dan Aalbers</EM><BR><EM>Brad
Olson</EM><BR><EM>Anthony Marsella</EM><BR><EM>Nathaniel
Raymond</EM><BR><EM>Stephen Soldz</EM><BR><EM>Bryant Welch</EM> </P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><STRONG>Entertainment by two Jazz-Blues
performers:</STRONG></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><STRONG></STRONG>Kathleen Kolman<BR>Marlene del
Rosario </P>
<P align=center><STRONG><EM>We look forward to seeing you there on Saturday, the
16<SUP>th</SUP>.</EM></STRONG></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: small; COLOR: brown"><EM><STRONG><FONT size=2>OUR
CALL:</FONT></STRONG></EM></SPAN></P>
<P align=center><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: small; COLOR: green"><STRONG><FONT
size=2>Psychologists for an Ethical APA Calls for Protest Outside APA
Convention</FONT></STRONG></SPAN></P>
<P><EM>“A government is not the expression of the will of the people, but rather
the expression of what the people will tolerate.”</EM></P>
<P><STRONG>Kurt Tucholsky</STRONG></P>
<P>We as psychologists and American citizens have become aware that our
government has adopted torture and the denial of human rights for detainees as
official policy. Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, rendition and CIA “black sites” have
irrevocably entered our language and consciousness. Waterboarding, sexual and
religious humiliation, and denial of habeas corpus have become symbolic of a
climate of disdain for human rights and human decency that has infected our
government and been absorbed into our social fabric.</P>
<P>During the last several years, we have also become aware that psychologists
have played central roles in the Bush regime of torture and detainee abuse. As
has been documented by numerous journalists and official government reports,
psychologists helped develop, implement, standardize, and disseminate abusive
interrogation techniques that have led to torture. Other psychologists
responsible for treating detainees, along with other health professionals,
failed to act against abuses being committed upon those they were ethically
obliged to heal and protect. Given the central role of our profession in
perpetrating and abetting these abuses, the rest of us who represent the field
bear a special responsibility to do all we can to stop the abuses and voice our
objection.</P>
<P>Our professional association, the American Psychological Association, has
failed us. While we expectantly listened for a clear moral voice opposing
complicity with our government’s abuses, the APA engaged in a pattern of denial,
deceit and distraction in support of its policy keeping psychologists engaged in
interrogations at detention centers where human rights and international laws
have been grossly and systematically violated. When we needed an ethics policy
that underscored the importance of ethical behavior, the APA created a revised
code which allowed the following of unethical laws and regulations, and which
removed protections for research participants when permitted by law or
government regulation. When we needed deep ethical discussion, the APA appointed
an ethics task force dominated by military-intelligence psychologists, most of
whom served in precisely those interrogation settings under debate. When we
needed clear statements condemning ongoing U.S, government abuses, the APA
passed resolution after resolution condemning “torture” and “cruel, inhuman, and
degrading treatment” while failing ever to condemn, or even acknowledge, the
ongoing abuses. When we needed action against those psychologists participating
in abuses, we received denial after denial and delay after delay, making a
continual mockery of ethics enforcement. And when we needed to indicate to the
world that psychology was a profession with the highest ethical standards, the
APA alone, of all the major health professions’ organizations, not only allowed
continued participation in interrogations, violating the centuries-old “do no
harm” ethical standards for health professions, but kept silent on known
harms.</P>
<P>Last February, over six years after the first reports of US torture and abuse
in Afghanistan, Guantanamo, and later, Iraq, surfaced, the APA finally
unambiguously condemned participation in 19 specific interrogation techniques.
While this is a laudable, if long-delayed, first step, it is not enough.</P>
<P>Ø We must forever remove
psychologists from detention centers where human rights and international law
are violated; to do otherwise is to collude in those abuses.</P>
<P>Ø We must change our ethics
code to no longer allow members to follow unethical laws or orders and to
restore protections for all research participants.</P>
<P>Ø We must reevaluate the
nature of the ties between the APA and the military-intelligence establishment
to avoid participation in future unethical government activities.</P>
<P>Ø We must, in collaboration
with other health professions, set up a Truth process to create a public record
of the roles of psychologists and other health professionals in torture and
other detainee abuse, and to recommend ethical, policy, and structural changes
to reduce the likelihood that psychologists and other health professionals will
collaborate with future abuses.</P>
<P>We call upon all APA members, psychologists, other health professionals, and
citizens concerned with fundamental threats to human rights to let the
Association know the time is long past due for real change. Please join us on
the 16<SUP>th</SUP> of August to speak with a common voice against torture and
for a return to an ethical psychology and an ethical American Psychological
Association.</P>
<P><EM>“A profession is not the expression of the will of its members, but
rather the expression of what these members will tolerate.”</EM></P>
<P><STRONG>Psychologists for an Ethical APA</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG><EM>Let the APA leadership know that we will not tolerate
collaboration with detainee abuse. Psychology must once again become a
profession based upon fundamental ethical
principles.</EM></STRONG></P></DIV></FONT></SPAN></FONT></DIV></DIV>
<DIV>Cowardice asks the question:"Is it safe"? Expediency asks the question:"Is
it politic"? Vanity asks the question:"Is it popular?" But conscience asks the
question:"Is it right?" And there comes a time when one must take a position
that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular<BR>but one must take it because
one's conscience tells one what is right.<BR>- MLK </DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>