Between The Lines - Steven Reisner: Complaint against fellow psychologist Army Maj. John Leso torture role in Guantánam detainees (Week Ending April 29, 2011)

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.

His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.

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The Resistance Starts Now!

Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement

"The man who predicted Trump presidential win now says Trump impeachment could happen," AM Joy with Joy Reid, MSNBC, Jan. 21, 2018
"Sketchy Kazakh money finds its way into Trump dealings," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Red flags seen in many Trump real estate deals," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers," BuzzFeed, Jan. 12, 2018
"The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition," The Atlantic, May 15, 2017
"Here's what we know so far about Team Trump's ties to Russian interests," Washington Post's ongoing compilation
"What Comey Was Investigating, Explained," The Moscow Project, Center for American Progress

"Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands," Dutch TV documentary, Alternet.org, May 12, 2017
Ongoing compilation of Trump's creeping authoritarianism," MotherJones.com
Full resource list ...

SPECIAL REPORT: "The Resistance - Women's March 2018 - Hartford, Connecticut" Jan. 20, 2018

Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris

SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018

Jen Siskind Jennifer Siskind, local coordinator for Food and Water Watch, describes the campaign to stop fracking waste in Connecticut, which so far has led to fracking waste bans in 34 towns around the state. Interviewed by Richard Hill on Mic Check, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT

SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018

Lindsay Kanaly The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018

Richard Wolff, Economics professor Richard Wolff declares U.S. capitalism to be beyond repair and suggests the need for a radical alternative. Interviewed by Richard Hill

SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017

Maryn McKenna, investigative journalist and author of Big Chicken, talks about the widespread use and dangers of antibiotics in commercial poultry, beef and fruit production. Interview by Bill Duesing, Richard Hill and Guy Beardsly on WPKN's Organic Farm Stand.

SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT. Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.
Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017

Disturbing developments in the Trump/Republican Agenda
Focus on the tax bill, destruction of our public lands, North Korea and Trump's private CIA. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. Special guest: Jo Macallero of Rise and Resist.

SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny, discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, talks about the current state of health care coverage in Connecticut. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Two leaders from Redneck Revolt, an anti-racist, anti-capitalist movement, talk about their work organizing with white working class people in Suffolk County, New York. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the extent of -- and motives underlying -- the vast US network of military bases around the globe. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.
Joyakol discusses Americans' biggest misconceptions about the conflict between North and South Korea and the U.S., Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.

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THANK YOU TO EVERYONE...

who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!

For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 1 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 2 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

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Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.

Listen to audio of the plenary sessions from the weekend.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker "Dirty Wars"

Listen to the full interview (30:33) with Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Nation Magazine, correspondent for Democracy Now! and author of the bestselling book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," about America's outsourcing of its military. In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint's Scott Harris on Sept. 16, 2013, Scahill talks about his latest book, "Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield," also made into a documentary film under the same title, and was nominated Dec. 5, 2013 for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.

Listen to Scott Harris Live on WPKN Radio

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Complaint Alleges Army Psychologist Advised Interrogators in Torture Techniques

RealAudio MP3

Posted April 20, 2011

Interview with Steven Reisner, psychologist, conducted by Melinda Tuhus

Psychologist Steven Reisner is an outspoken critic of those in his profession who participated in coercive interrogations, or torture, which he says is defined as treatment that injures a prisoner for the purpose of extracting information. Reisner maintains that torture takes many forms, but that emotional and psychological torture techniques -- such as sleep deprivation, isolation and humiliation -- leave more serious, though invisible scars, than the physical tactics usually thought of as torture, such as applying electric shocks or waterboarding.

In early April, Reisner appeared in New York District Court to press his complaint against fellow psychologist Army Maj. John Leso, who Reisner accused of unethical conduct for his role in the torture of prisoners at the U.S. military’s Guantánamo Bay Detention Center in Cuba. The complaint accused Leso of recommending the interrogation methods employed against Mohammed al-Qahtani, an alleged 9-11 conspirator, that Reisner says included forced hydration, induced hypothermia, 20-hour interrogations, forced nudity and religious "disgrace."

The complaint which charges Leso of violating New York state professional standards, was supported by the New York Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Justice and Accountability. The Pentagon didn't respond to a request for comment on Reisner's complaint against Leso. Between The Lines' Melinda Tuhus spoke with Steven Reisner about torture and what he believes to be the major ethical position a psychologist should hold regarding the issue.

STEVEN REISNER: Then there's the question of what is torturous, in terms of people's experience of torture, and I can tell you from having treated torture survivors that the non-physical forms of torture have a much more traumatizing and long-lasting effects than the physical forms of torture. So when you put electrodes on somebody or give them a bunch of little cuts, or beat them up, it's terrible, but they don't have as hard a time being able to talk about being tortured than when they've been humiliated or have gone crazy or been put in stress positions that make them feel that if only they hadn't moved in just this position it wouldn't have hurt so much and they could have avoided talking. The psychological pressures that lead people to break, the research shows that they have much longer lasting scars and effects on people than the physical tortures.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Would you say that since Bradley Manning -- the alleged whistleblower in the WikiLeaks case -- or any prisoner -- is kept in isolation 23 hours a day that's torture?

STEVEN REISNER: Yup.

BETWEEN THE LINES: And the isolation alone, even if no other factors are there, has a really horrible detrimental effect for years afterward?

STEVEN REISNER: Not necessarily. It depends on the character of the person. Some people don't get traumatized.

There are certain things we've just decided over the centuries are wrong, and abusing prisoners as punishment or to get information from them is universally condemned, except at certain periods of time by certain regimes that -- until the Bush administration -- our government joined in condemning.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Steven Reisner, Isn't it true that the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association prohibit their members from being involved in coercive interrogations? What's the difference between these two groups and the American Psychological Association?

STEVEN REISNER: The difference is that the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association follow the World Medical Association; they basically say the role of a health practitioner is to help people and not hurt people. It's based on the ethical principal of do no harm. And the American Psychological Association has decided that their people can participate in coercive interrogations whose aim is to cause prisoners to speak against their will. And the American Psychological Association has joined the Justice Department under the Bush administration in deciding that the standards have to do with…how can I put this?... that the same standards that apply to any interrogator should apply to a psychologist. And that’s different than other health professionals. Other health professionals see themselves first as health professionals. The American Psychological Association has created a new category of "operational psychologist" and has basically joined with the military in saying that clinical psychologists can be military combatants whose aim is to debilitate the enemy, get information, and use people as if we're at war with them to undermine their mental and physical state if it helps the war effort.

BETWEEN THE LINES: You were in court last week, with support from the American Civil Liberties Union and the regarding the behavior of a fellow psychologist. I know you won't have a resolution for awhile yet, but can you explain what it's all about?

STEVEN REISNER: The story is that I have brought an ethics case against John Leso, [Army] Maj. John Leso, who was one of the health professionals at Guantánamo on the team that created the torture protocols that were used on two detainees very specifically and generally on just about all the detainees – some aspects of it were used on all the detainees. He's a clinical psychologist licensed in the State of New York. Unfortunately, the Board of Professional Discipline simply refused to investigate, so we brought a case in New York State Supreme Court to have the court order the Office of Professional Discipline to open an investigation. My argument was that a clinical psychologist who uses his psychological expertise, who's hired as a clinical psychologist for a client, which was the military, is hired to do harm to individuals, is violating the ethical principles of the New York psychology, of the code that we are all beholden to, in such a way that he should be investigated and his license should be taken away from him if it turns out that, based on the investigation, that this allegation is true.

See Steven Reisner’s torture complaint against Maj. John Leso.