Criminal Overworld: World's most notorious unindicted dog torturing psychopath DENIES The Torture perpetrated by the Philly Mob despite the fact that Pablo and his cohorts from Philly made it a matter of public documented record that the Philly Mob i [Medication]

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From: Linda on 24 Jul 2008 13:41

If Seligman didn't want the entire world to know the Philly MOB is in
charge of Torture, USA, then, the Philly Mob ought not have tortured
me and mine for 8 friggen years.

http://www.pubrecord.org/commentary/200.html?task=view

Physicians, Psychologists & the Problem of "The Dark Side"

By J. Valtin
The Public Record
Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Favoured : 18

Published in : Commentary

"Any of us could be the man who encounters his double." -- Friedrich
Durrenmat (1)
Jane Mayer's new book, The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War
on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals (not due out in the
bookstores until tomorrow), is already creating headlines and
generating controversy. This article will examine the issues around
U.S. torture practice, in light of new allegations in the book, and
review an email conversation between myself and a prominent nationally-
known psychologist whom Mayer says assisted in the planning of U.S.
government torture.

Scott Shane at The New York Times wrote an article last Friday
describing how Mayer reveals that the International Committee of the
Red Cross (ICRC) told the CIA last year in a report that the
interrogation of "high-level" detainees, such as Abu Zubaydah,
"categorically" constituted torture, were illegal, and amounted to
prosecutable war crimes. Zubaydah, famously, was one of three
prisoners the government has admitted were waterboarded. A videotape
of his interrogation was destroyed by the CIA.

In an July 14 interview with Scott Horton at Harper's, Jane Mayer
discussed the reaction to the ICRC charges:

... Abu Zubayda claimed to have been locked in a tiny cage, in which
he had to remain doubled up for long periods of time, prior to the
period when he was waterboarded. This account which he gave to the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was confirmed to me
independently by a former CIA officer familiar with his
interrogation....

The reaction of top Bush Administration officials to the ICRC report,
from what I can gather, has been defensive and dismissive. They reject
the ICRCs legal analysis as incorrect. Yet my reporting shows that
inside the White House there has been growing fear of criminal
prosecution...
Ms. Mayer concludes that the addition of an immunity provision in the
Military Commissions Act passed by Congress in 2007 was an attempt to
address such fears among administration figures. She further opines
that it seems unlikely to her that anyone in the Bush administration
will actually face domestic prosecution for war crimes, as the
"political appetite" seems lacking. And then she adds the following
(emphasis added):

An additional complicating factor is that key members of Congress
sanctioned this program, so many of those who might ordinarily be
counted on to lead the charge are themselves compromised.
A Prominent Psychologist Comes Under Fire

While medical personnel associated with the ICRC have played a heroic
role in documenting and advocating for prisoners' rights, doctors and
psychologists associated with U.S. detention and interrogation of so-
called "enemy combatants" in the "war on terror" have not acquitted
themselves with the same ethical probity. In fact, they may be guilty
of war crimes themselves.

Jane Mayer's new book also looks more closely at the utilization of
SERE techniques as a template for U.S. torture of detainees. (SERE
stands for Survival, Evasion, Resistance, & Escape, and is a military
program aimed at training U.S. soldiers for torture at the hands of
vicious captors, those who would not honor Geneva Convention
protocols. Ironically, the U.S. itself announced that "enemy
combatants" are not bound by those same Geneva agreements.)

It's been a year since SERE military psychologists James Mitchell and
John Bruce Jessen were accused, in an article by Katherine Eban in
Vanity Fair, of teaching SERE techniques to interrogators at
Guantanamo and elsewhere. (I covered the "nuts and bolts" of how SERE
procedures were taught at Guantanamo in a recent essay.) According to
a different article by Jane Mayer last year, Mitchell utilized the
theories of "learned helplessness" in implementing his interrogation
lessons. (Mr. Mitchell denied this assertion.) Mayer wrote:

Steve Kleinman, a reserve Air Force colonel and an experienced
interrogator who has known Mitchell professionally for years, said
that learned helplessness was his whole paradigm. Mitchell, he said,
draws a diagram showing what he says is the whole cycle. It starts
with isolation. Then they eliminate the prisoners ability to forecast
the futurewhen their next meal is, when they can go to the bathroom.
It creates dread and dependency. It was the K.G.B. model. But the
K.G.B. used it to get people who had turned against the state to
confess falsely. The K.G.B. wasnt after intelligence.
This torture model of dread, debility through isolation, and
dependency may have been the model of the K.G.B., but it was
intellectually codified by U.S. psychologists and psychiatrists in the
1950s, most notably in a 1956 article in the journal Sociometry,
Brainwashing, Conditioning, and DDD (Debility, Dependency, and Dread).
One of the authors of this article, Harry Harlow, went on to become a
president of the American Psychological Association (APA).

In Mayer's new book, she implicates another former APA president in
the development of torture, Martin Seligman, the creator of the theory
of "learned helplessness". I have not seen Mayer's book, which hasn't
been released yet, so my accounts come from statements online by Scott
Horton, as well as the latter's interview with Mayer previously cited.
Horton wrote (emphasis added):

[Mayer] traces the development of the torture techniques to the work
of two contractors, Mitchell and Jessen, and disclosed the specific
techniques they developed. She notes that the techniques rely heavily
on a theory called "Learned Helplessness" developed by a Penn
psychologist Martin Seligman, who assisted them in the process.
Seligman is no obscure academic, or bureaucrat. He is one of the best
known psychologists in the country, a prominent professor, and leader
of the Positive Psychology movement, often quoted in the nation's
psychology textbooks. Mayer's allegations about Seligman were picked
up anti-torture activist and psychologist Stephen Soldz at his blog.
This brought a rejoinder from Seligman himself, denying he assisted in
torture in any way. He continued:

I gave a three hour lecture sponsored by SERE (the Survival, Evasion,
Resistance, Escape branch of the American armed forces) at the San
Diego Naval Base in May 2002. My topic was how American troops and
American personnel could use what is known about learned helplessness
and related findings to resist torture and evade successful
interrogation by their captors.

I was told then that since I was (and am) a civilian with no security
clearance that they could not discuss American methods of
interrogation with me. I have not had contact with SERE since that
meeting. I have not worked under government contract (or any other
contract) on any aspect of interrogation or any aspect of torture. Mr.
Mitchell and Mr. Jessen were present in the audience of about 50
others at my speech, and that was, to the best of my knowledge, the
sum total of my assisting them in the process."
What Seligman Told Me

In December 2006, following suspicions (at that time uncorroborated by
government documents) that SERE had been used to reverse-engineer
torture, as reported by Jane Mayer in a July 2005 New Yorker article,
which mentioned Seligman by name, and by Mark Benjamin at Salon.com, I
wrote to Seligman and asked him about reports he had taught at the
SERE school. I was then researching an article on psychological
research into sensory deprivation and torture. (The article turned
into a presentation at the APA convention in 2007, and was
subsequently published as "Psychology and Research into Coercive
Interrogation".) Dr. Seligman's answer to me then (December 2006) was
much the same as that made to Soldz above.

I tried to push Seligman a little harder on the issue:

I really have only one outstanding question that remains from my
original questions: Were you aware -- or do you even believe -- that
your work on learned helplessness has been used not only to help our
soldiers withstand coercive interrogation, but to conduct such types
of interrogation by U.S. interrogators themselves?
Martin Seligman replied tersely:

I am not available for further comment. (2)
About seven months later, as further revelations about SERE and
torture surfaced, including admissions by the Pentagon Office of
Inspector General (in a report publicly released in May 2007) that
SERE reverse-engineering had taken place, and that Mitchell and Jessen
were involved, I revisited the issue with Dr. Seligman in August 2007:

When I wrote to you before, you declined to comment on my question.
But I think it is incumbent upon you now to say more about what you
know, as well as what you think, about the use of your work by
military and CIA psychologists to instigate torture. I ask you this as
a colleague in the field, and as a psychologist interested in stopping
torture, and ashamed of the actions of some in our field in
perpetuating abusive behavior. I would think you would like to clear
your name, which otherwise remains linked (even if in obscure ways) to
some of the worst episodes in our nation's and our profession's
history.
Dr. Seligman replied (emphasis added):

I am entirely out of this loop, having had zero contact with SERE
since my talk in April 2002. I know nothing at all about how they have
applied LH concepts to either help our own people or to the
interrogation of prisoners. When I asked about the latter at my talk,
they told me that they could not give me any information at all, since
I had no "classification."

My talk was about how to teach our people to resist LH [Learned
Helplessness] and my life work has been devoted to the issues of
undoing LH, not about inducing it in other human beings.
Once again, I persevered, intrigued that Seligman appeared to be
admitting that he had asked about application of "learned
helplessness" techniques to the interrogation of prisoners. Why, in
December 2002, had he bothered to ask? Was he suspicious? Did he know
more than he was saying, or even worse, had he done more than he was
admitting? I wrote (emphasis in original):

I appreciate your quick reply, and I understand that you had nothing
to do with how LH concepts were used by others. But, given the
controversy over psychologist participation in interrogations (a vote
on competing resolutions is due at the next [APA] Council meeting),
and the fact that your ideas and research were obviously used (you
even asked them about it), what is your position on the use of your
research by others, and on psychologists involved in military/CIA
interrogations under the current administration?
Dr. Seligman replied:

The only "position" I am comfortable staking out is "Good science
always runs the risk of immoral application. It goes with the
territory of discovery."
Doubling and Collaboration with Torture

Dr. Seligman's "position" was startling. Even if one accepts his
denial of further association with the torture program initiated by
the Bush administration, utilizing SERE coercive techniques, Seligman
seems to believe it's okay to settle for a "see no evil" approach. In
his point of view, he is a scientist, a discoverer of new knowledge.
If his work might be abused, that is not a concern of his.

This is an immoral position, of course, even if not necessarily
criminal, in a forensic sense. If I could question him further, I
would ask why he was asked to give this particular "lecture" at a SERE
school at this time, and who asked him to do so. (Mayer says Seligman
was connected with the CIA, but no further details are given.) I would
further ask what led him to inquire about the possible use of SERE
techniques on interrogations of prisoners, and why, when he was waved
off, he acquiesced so meekly.

For years now, Dr. Seligman has been quiet about the use of his own
theories in the application of horrifying torture techniques. Why this
silence?

The situation with Seligman, like those of other psychologists and
psychiatrists who worked for the CIA's MKULTRA and like programs over
forty years ago, reminds me of the analysis Robert Jay Lifton made of
the behavior of doctors in Nazi Germany, who were implicated in anti-
semitic purges of Jews from the medicine field, and in programs of
forced sterilization, euthanasia of mental patients, and later, in the
operations of the concentration camps. (The Germans, I should note,
were not the only people to engage in forced sterilizations. The
United States, too, engaged in eugenics policies such as forced
sterilization earlier in the twentieth century, and many doctors
participated in that.)

In his book, The Nazi Doctors, Lifton describes the phenomenon of
"doubling", or "socialization to evil."

Doubling arises in the context where a professional must "function
psychologically in an environment... antithetical to his previous
ethical standards..." The person must be able to connect with both the
prior, ethical self and the new, unethical environment or institution.
The splitting of the professional self allows for an adaptation to
evil and an escape from subsequent feelings of guilt or wrong-doing,
as "the second self tends to be the one performing the 'dirty work'."
What makes the entire process so insidious is that it usually takes
place outside of individual consciousness, even as it involves "a
significant change in moral consciousness." Thus, doubling can be
understood as an adaptation to an extremely immoral culture or
institution, allowing for disavowal of guilt. (See The Nazi Doctors,
Lifton, pp. 421-423).

We can see this in Seligman's disavowal of any wrong-doing, and even
his strong protestations of being against torture. Now, it's
notoriously difficult to psychoanalyze someone from afar, but how else
are we to explain the monumental and repeated violations of basic
ethical practice by physicians and psychologists over the years,
whether it has to do with secret study done on unknowing African-
American subjects as part of the infamous Tuskegee syphilis patients
experiments that lasted for forty years, until 1972; the human
plutonium radiation experiments of the last century; the CIA mind
control programs noted above; or the development and implementation of
current psychological torture programs, which continues to date?

Are We Morally Doomed?

I think Jane Mayer is wrong on one point. As pointed out earlier, she
is pessimistic that this nation has the "political appetite" to bring
the perpetrators of torture to the bar of justice in his country. I
hear that from many. But where there is a will, there is,
proverbially, a way. It is not about "appetite" anymore. It is about
what we must do, if we are not to take that final step into the dark
side, a place Vice President Cheney so-famously told us we would have
to go. We know now what awaits us there.

Worse even than the doubling of an individual like Martin Seligman is
the behavior of the professional organizations for doctors and
psychologists. The American Medical Association, while officially
having a policy of not participating in interrogations at Bush's war
on terror prisons, has taken no steps I know of to investigate or
police violations of this policy. For years, the American
Psychological Association has maintained that, while against torture,
it supports psychologists working at prisons like Guantanamo, even if
they do not allow basic human rights, because supposedly they lessen
the possibility of abuse. The logic is grotesque, at best, and grossly
misleading when you realize it's psychologists who have been
implicated in organizing the abuse. But on this, the APA remains
silent, rendering that organization, in Mayer's own characterization,
"worthless."

In the famous legend, Faust bargains away his soul to the devil for
the privilege of obtaining knowledge. In Goethe's rendering of the
story, Faust is redeemed in the end, and the spirits who help him
remind us, "He who persists in striving ever upwards, him we can
save."

(1) Quote taken from Robert Jay Lifton's The Nazi Doctors, Basic
Books, 1986/2000, p. 418.

(2) The quotes from my email correspondence with Dr. Seligman were the
source of some quandary for me, as I was unsure whether to utilize
them. I sought consultation for this issue with a long-time, highly
respected journalist who thought it appropriate. I do want to make
clear that all who communicate with me by voice or by writing
(including email) and ask for confidentiality or non-attribution will
have their request respected. My quotations from the Seligman
correspondence with me are drawn from a professional exchange and not,
in my opinion, privileged.

Last update : Tuesday, July 15, 2008

From: markprobert on 25 Jul 2008 14:43

On Jul 24, 2:44 pm, MSmith <MSm...(a)myhouse.net> wrote:
> Linda wrote:
> > If Seligman didn't want the entire world to know the Philly MOB is in
> > charge of Torture, USA, then, the Philly Mob ought not have tortured
> > me and mine for 8 friggen years.
>
BIG SNIP

privileged.
>
> > Last update : Tuesday, July 15, 2008
>
> You make my work so easy, you paranoid psycho, proving once again, that
> no one should waste a moment to pay any heed to Osama bin Linda.

Please be a kinder and gentler poster to Linda. She needs help.

From: markprobert on 25 Jul 2008 14:43

From: Jan Drew on 25 Jul 2008 18:41

"markprobert(a)lumbercartel.com" <mark.probert(a)gmail.com> wrote in message
news:c7eaf2cf-fd2f-48ef-9c36-125491a7c549(a)y38g2000hsy.googlegroups.com...
On Jul 24, 2:44 pm, MSmith <MSm...(a)myhouse.net> wrote:
> Linda wrote:
> > If Seligman didn't want the entire world to know the Philly MOB is in
> > charge of Torture, USA, then, the Philly Mob ought not have tortured
> > me and mine for 8 friggen years.
>
BIG SNIP

privileged.
>
> > Last update : Tuesday, July 15, 2008
>
> You make my work so easy, you paranoid psycho, proving once again, that
> no one should waste a moment to pay any heed to Osama bin Linda.

Please be a kinder and gentler poster to Linda. She needs help

http://groups.google.com/group/misc.health.alternative/msg/bddad320e6...

Mon, Jun 5 2006

placing a person's name in a new thread is stalking and harassment

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.support.attn-deficit/msg/e45274053...

Thurs, Jun 29 2006

Linda Tortures Readers
=============
Now, who needs help?

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