{"id":4403,"date":"2011-03-26T05:14:25","date_gmt":"2011-03-26T12:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=4403"},"modified":"2011-03-27T00:50:30","modified_gmt":"2011-03-27T07:50:30","slug":"this-appointment-is-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/03\/26\/this-appointment-is-wrong\/","title":{"rendered":"This Appointment Is Wrong!"},"content":{"rendered":"

As any regular reader knows, I\u2019m not one who condemns Obama blindly in a knee-jerk reaction.\u00a0 Where there is doubt, I tend to give him it\u2019s benefit.\u00a0 When he does something right, I credit him for it.\u00a0 However, when he is wrong, I don\u2019t sugar coat it.\u00a0 I say so.\u00a0 The appointment of Dr. Larry James to any government post is wrong, and more than that, it sends the world the worst possible message about who we are as a country.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"26GuantanamoTorture\"One of the most intense scandals the field of psychology has faced over the last decade<\/a> is the involvement of several of its members in enabling Bush’s worldwide torture regime<\/strong>.\u00a0 Numerous health professionals worked for the U.S. government to help understand how best to mentally degrade and break down detainees. At the center of that controversy<\/a> was — and is — Dr. Larry James.\u00a0 James, a retired Army colonel, was the Chief Psychologist at Guantanamo in 2003, at the height of the abuses at that camp, and then served in the same position at Abu Ghraib during 2004<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Today, Dr. James circulated an excited email announcing, “with great pride,” that he has now been selected to serve on the “White House Task Force entitled Enhancing the Psychological Well-Being of The Military Family.”\u00a0 In his new position, he will be meeting at the White House with Michelle Obama and other White House officials on Tuesday<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

For his work at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, Dr. James was the subject of two formal ethics complaints in the two states where he is licensed to practice<\/strong>: Louisiana and Ohio.\u00a0 Those complaints<\/a> — 50 pages long and full of detailed and well-documented allegations — were filed by the International Human Rights Clinic of Harvard Law School’s Human Rights Program, on behalf of veterans, mental health professionals and others.\u00a0 The complaints detailed how James “was the senior psychologist of the Guant\u00e1namo BSCT, a small but influential group of mental health professionals whose job it was to advise on and participate in the interrogations, and to help create an environment designed to break down prisoners.”… [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Salon<\/a>><\/p>\n

I believe that nobody is irredeemable.\u00a0 I would not object to this appointment had James taken responsibility for his crimes, made amends where possible, and done whatever it takes to change predator to decent human being.\u00a0 In the absense of any evidence that he has done so.<\/span><\/p>\n

Therefore, for Obama to appoint this man tells the world that the torture committed at the GOP Gitmo Gulag does not matter to our shame.<\/span><\/p>\n

It looks like I spoke too soon and gave you some bad info.\u00a0 I did source check Salon’s article, which was later corrected too, and found the story at other reputable sources, but all were apparently based on a false claim by that Republican torturer, Larry James.\u00a0 His dinner invitation is based solely on military service and American Psychology Association membership, and has been appointed to no post in the Obama Administration.\u00a0 Please see comment #3 for details.\u00a0 Thanks Nameless!\u00a0 I do apologize.\u00a0 When I’m wrong, I say so.\u00a0 In that way, you know that I am not a Republican pundit.<\/strong><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As any regular reader knows, I\u2019m not one who condemns Obama blindly in a knee-jerk reaction.\u00a0 Where there is doubt, I tend to give him it\u2019s benefit.\u00a0 When he does something right, I credit him for it.\u00a0 However, when he is wrong, I don\u2019t sugar coat it.\u00a0 I say so.\u00a0 The appointment of Dr. Larry […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4403\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}