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Films and Multimedia
Blogs
Journalists and Mainstream and Alternative Media Outlet Coverage
A thorough and comprehensive blog by our own Stephen Soldz, a psychoanalyst, educator, researcher, activist,
and recent recipient of the 2009 Brookline PAX Community Service Award. Stephen collects recent articles
and commentary, as well as linking to his own voluminous work on the subject. Stephen is also the president-
elect of Psychologists for Social Responsibility!
This 2006 BBC Channel 4 documentary by Michael Winterbottom follows three British citizens on their tortured
path through the Guantánamoa Bay detention and interrogation gauntlet.
This 2007 documentary by Alex Gibney won the Academy Award for best documentary. It explores the
development and deployment of psychological torture techniques and their use on a taxi driver detained at
Bagram Air Base. You can visit the film's website, or watch it streaming online.
This powerful 46-minute documentary was made by psychologist (and PEAPA Steering Committee member!)
Martha Davis, and offers an inside perspective on the inner workings of the APA and how they relate to the
interrogation crisis. It had its premiere at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Center on Terrorism in New
York City on September 12, 2008, at a conference entitled "Interrogation and Torture Controversy: Crisis in
Psychology." It is now hosted on Martha's new website "Doctors and Detainees," complete with further video
footage, links, etc. Also, please keep an eye out for Martha's feature-length documentary of the same name,
due out in spring 2010...
A psychoanalyst, activist psychologist, and blogger extraordinaire, Valtin blogs at Daily Kos, Firedoglake,
American Torture, and several other sites, as well as at his own blog, Invictus, where he has broken several
important stories related to psychologists' involvement in torture and interrogations. Both Valtin's and Soldz'
blogs are recommended for their sweeping scope, as well as their detailed analysis and synthesis of a wealth of
information.
Legendary journalist Amy Goodman and her award-winning program Democracy Now! have followed the story
of the APA's involvement in enhanced interrogations since 2005, and this special section of her website provides
a comprehensive collection of her work on this topic. Her work has been instrumental in bringing the work of
activist psychologists to the awareness of a larger audience. Thank you, Amy!
This 2007 documentary film is a collaboration between producer Sherry Jones, her group Washington Media
Associates, and the National Security Archive. It documents, among other things, the migration of the SERE
techniques from their initial use in Army training to their eventual use in Guantánamo and other detention
facilities. The film's site, torturingdemocracy.org, also has links to many official reports, articles, and other
materials related to interrogations and torutre. The film can be viewed in three parts straight from the website,
above.
Related Websites
This site, associated with the book of the same name by Michael Otterman, hosts bloggers (including Valtin),
news articles, and also has some archived documents.
This extensive collection of valuable data and testimony from many parties involved in detentions and
interrogations at Guantánamo is compiled and maintained by The UC Davis Center for the Study of Human
Rights in the Americas (CSHRA). The CSHRA's director, UCDavis linguistics prof. Almerindo Ojeda, also
edited an excellent volume on psychological torture entitled "The Trauma of Pyshcological Torture."
This group documents and advocates for an immense range of human rights issues, among which is the illegal
detentions at Guantánamo and related sites. They issued a report on conditions in the prison in Jan. 2009,
entitled "Locked Up Alone."
Salon.com journalist Mark Benjamin helped his site get out in front of this story far more than any mainstream
print outlet was willing or able to do. During 2006-2007 he wrote a comprehensive series of articles
documenting the migration of SERE tactics, resistance within the APA, interviewing members of this group,
correspondence between us and others and the APA leadership, etc. Selected articles are included below, and
several more are available on their website. Benjamin also covers issues like U.S. troop suicides and PTSD.
"Torture teachers" -- June 29, 2006
"Psychological warfare" -- July 26, 2006
"Psychologists group still rocked by torture debate" -- August 4, 2006
"The CIA's torture teachers" -- June 21, 2007
"Will psychologists still abet torture?" -- August 21, 2007
Vanity Fair's Katherine Eban provides this in-depth look at the story and the politics behind the migration of
SERE interrogation resistance techniques from the U.S. military's training programs to their eventual application
in the extra-legal, sometimes secret, detention facilities abroad. Her narrative centers around psychologists
James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, and also around the interrogation of "high value" detainee Abu Zubaydah.
This international, non-profit group of psychologists and others works to apply psychological tools to the
advancement of peace, social justice, human rights, and ecological responsibility. They have made torture in
general, and the APA's involvement in setting and abetting Bush admin. interrogation and detention policy in
particular, one of their central issues recently. Please visit their End Torture Action Committee page, and
consider supporting their important work.
From their website: "PHR was founded in 1986 on the idea that health professionals, with their specialized skills,
ethical duties, and credible voices, are uniquely positioned to investigate the health consequences of human
rights violations and work to stop them." PHR has been very active in the torture issue through their Campaign
Against Torture, with members and representatives appearing at a number of conferences and symposia.
Additonally, they have issued a number of important reports on related topics, links to several of which are
provided below:
"Break Them Down: Systematic Use of Psychological Torture by U.S. Forces" May, 2005
"Leave No Marks: Enhanced Interrogation Techniques and the Risk of Criminality" August, 2007
"Broken Laws, Broken Lives: Medical Evidence of Torture by U.S. Forces and Its Impact" June, 2008
"Aiding Torture: Health Professionals' Ethics and Human Rights Violations in CIA's IG Report" August, 2009
This page, from psychologist Ken Pope's website, has many valuable links to files, resources, and information
regarding interrogation, torture, and psychologists' and physicians' involvement therein.
This site is associated with the group Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), and is the home page for a
campaign they are sponsoring that aims to collect evidence of mental health professionals' involvement in
torture as a means to ensure accountability, either through direct legal action or through the relevant state
licensing boards or professional associations, as appropriate. They welcome citizen or professional
contributions, which can take the form of providing relevant evidence regarding a health professional; writing
letters to lobby government, professional associations, or ethics boards to take action and to take these issues
seriously; filing formal complaints against professionals; or other forms of direct action. Please visit their site!