Complaint Against Terror War Psychologist Proceeding - Texas

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http://www.texastribune.org/texas-politics/george-w-bush/complaint-against-terror-psychologist-proceeding/

Complaint Against Terror War Psychologist Proceeding

by

January 11, 2011

The Texas State Board of

Psychologists will hold a hearing on Feb. 8 in the complaint

against , the Texas-licensed architect of CIA

"enhanced interrogation techniques."

The first step in the disciplinary process against , the

hearing means that the board has not elected to dismiss it

outright as legally insufficient. That means, according to Dicky

Grigg, the Austin lawyer who worked with Northwestern University

law professor ph Margulies and Texas psychologist Jim to

bring the complaint, that it has cleared two initial hurdles: The

board has determined there was probable cause behind it and that

it has not been brought against an exempt agency — significant if

were to claim governmental immunity.

After the hearing, the board can then decide to dismiss the

complaint or recommend discplinary action: either a reprimand,

probation, supsension, or revocation of his license. If

contests that decision, the complaint then progresses to a full

blown administrative hearing. The Tribune has placed a call to

's lawyer for comment.

Brought in June, the complaint alleges that

, who parlayed his experience training American soldiers

to survive as prisoners of war into a lucrative consulting

business with the CIA during the Bush Administration, violated the

profession’s rules of practice in helping the agency develop

“enhanced interrogation techniques” for use in its so-called black

prison sites during the war on terror. Along with Bruce n, a

fellow military psychologist, was a primary

developer of post-Sept. 11 CIA interrogation methods that

are currently under a criminal torture investigation by the U.S.

Department of Justice.

According to the complaint, directed and participated in

the harsh interrogation of terror suspects using sexual

humiliation and the drowning technique called waterboarding. The

complaint also charges that the doctor misrepresented his

qualifications to the CIA, placing “his own career and financial

aspirations above the safety of others” while designing a “torture

regime” with a “complete lack of scientific basis.”