ProPublica/Salon published a really good article on the role of psychologists in crafting the Bush administration torture policy.  This article is well worth the read and provides tons of information on many of the players and issues popping up in congressional reports and memos.  It also adds a few people and facts I was previously unaware of.  There is just too much in the article to properly quote highlights ... read it!!!

As a part of the report, ProPublica has posted an entire mailing list archive from the "Presidential Task Force on Psychological Ethics and National Security" (PENS) group in the APA.  These discussions led up to a much disputed report that many APA members found to be soft on torture.  The raw emails offer an interesting window into the debate.  At 216 pages, there is a lot of fluff - but a brief scan also turns up some very germane discussions as well.

Huffington Post is one of the few outlets to pick up on this.  The Physicians for Human Rights is calling for an independent investigation of the process leading up to the APA report:

"These serious allegations require an independent investigation to determine whether APA leadership engaged in unethical conduct," said Steven Reisner, Ph.D., PHR Advisor for Psychological Ethics.

"The American public deserves to know if there were inappropriate contacts or conflicts of interest between APA officials and the Pentagon," he said.

They seem to be fleshing out closer ties between the APA and Pentagon/military brass than has previously been acknowledged.

The actions of psychologists and the APA seem to be critical on this issue.  The entire premise of the Bybee memo relies on professional assertions made by military psychologists.  Also, the congressional report is clear that from the very beginning the torture idea was concieved and advanced in large part by these mental-health "professionals".

Anyhow, there's another 200+ pages of raw documents that show another little piece of this tragic puzzle.  Have a nice weekend.

(Note: also must give props to ArsTechnica as one of the few to report on this).