News Item!

President Obama’s Special Task Force on Interrogations and Transfer Policies Issues Official Recommendations, Proposes Creation of Specialized Interrogation Group

The Department of Justice announced today that the Special Task Force on Interrogations and Transfer Policies assigned by President Obama to:  “study and evaluate whether the interrogation practices and techniques in [the Army Field Manual], when employed by departments or agencies outside the military, provide an appropriate means of acquiring the intelligence necessary to protect the nation, and, if warranted, to recommend any additional or different guidance for other departments or agencies,” has arrived at several concrete policy recommendations.

Amongst them, the task force “has proposed ... a specialized interrogation group to bring together officials from law enforcement, the U.S. Intelligence Community and the Department of Defense to conduct interrogations in a manner that will strengthen national security consistent with the rule of law.” 

The Special Task Force on Interrogations and Transfer Policies Issues is the same group that SPSSI recently shared a briefing fact sheet with, developed by SPSSI James Marshall Fellow Jutta Tobias, in accordance with research published by Mark Costanzo, Ellen Gerrity and M. Brinton Lykes in a 2007 ASAP piece entitled “Psychologists and the Use of Torture in Interrogations.”

SPSSI Policy Coordinator Chris Woodside encourages members to e-mail questions and opinions regarding this news to cwoodside@spssi.org.  To read more, please follow the links below:

NPR Story
Official DOJ Release