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PSOT Director Coauthors Report on Medical Participation in U.S. Torture

PSOT Director Dr. Allen Keller coauthored a report recently released by Physicians for Human Rights titled "Aiding Torture," which details how the CIA relied on the expertise of medical and mental health professionals to carry out abusive and unlawful interrogations. The report was cited in a New York Times editorial on September 3, 2009. "Clearly, there is a need for a full investigation concerning U.S. policies and torture including the role of health professionals," says Dr. Keller. "Health professionals participated in torture must be held accountable, including criminal prosecution and loss of licensure."

"As a psychologist who cares for torture survivors, I find it particularly troubling that members of our profession were central to devising and carrying out such brutal and ultimately harmful policies," says PSOT Director of Clinical Services, Dr. Hawthorne Smith.

The Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture provides comprehensive medical and mental health, social, and legal services to refugees and asylum seekers who have endured torture and human rights abuses. Since PSOT's founding in 1995, approximately 2,500 men, women and children from over 80 countries have received care. PSOT staff members have played, and continue to play, a central role in speaking out against torture.

Read the PHR report here.

Read the Sept. 3 New York Times editorial, "Dick Cheney's Version," which references the report, here.