From: Andrew Phelps <dis_course@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [psysr-endtorture] PHR on Army Field Manual loopholes
To: psysr-endtorture@yahoogroups.com
Date: Saturday, January 31, 2009, 11:05 AM PST
The core of the "Army Field Manual" loopholes problem is that the national security system has a "build cultures we like" polity rather than a "build cultures of peace" approach. When Bateson, Mead, and Benedict helped build the OSS/CIA culture in the 40s, they built a national security culture, one that has failed to produce, from Mossadegh 1953 to Gaza 2008. Their 'elite' approach comes to .. anthropology w/o integrity.
["Integrity" is a culturally defined phenomenon, it seems.]The APA built its now-being-discredited torture support system based on the foothold provided by the "small group of concerned people" approach provided above. In practice, that approach said, "the less torture the better," and career practitioners who sought to live up to the ideals of the "cultures we like," like Valerie Plame (no last name), were dedicated to avoiding torture "whenever and however." And to lamenting the 'unavoidable' .
Whence the logic of LOOPHOLES.
AP
On Fri, 1/30/09, Eee wrote:
Our friends at PHR elaborate on the AFM issues:
RIGHTS-US: Close Torture Loopholes, Physicians' Group Urges
By William Fisher
NEW YORK, Jan 29 (IPS) - While applauding President Barack Obama's recent executive orders banning torture and other harsh interrogation practices, medical authorities are calling attention to a little-reported section of the Army's Field Manual on Interrogation that they say still allows the use of tactics that can constitute torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment under U.S. and international law.
The suspect section of the Manual is known as Annex M, which allows the use of sleep deprivation, sensory deprivation, and isolation, termed "separation" in the Manual. Obama's executive orders directed all government agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), to follow the manual for interrogations.