THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

In response to reports of the use of psychologists assisting and abetting the torture of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, the American Psychological Association adopted a new and stricter set of rules of ethics for its members. As a result, the Pentagon has greatly reduced the use of psychologists there.

Gen. John F. Kelly, the head of the United States Southern Command, which oversees Guantánamo, has ordered that psychologists be withdrawn from a wide range of activities dealing with detainees at the prison because of the new rules of the association, the nation’s largest professional organization for psychologists. The group approved the rules this past summer.

General Kelly’s order is the latest fallout after years of recriminations within the profession for the crucial role that psychologists played in the post-9/11 programs of harsh interrogation created by the C.I.A. and the Pentagon. The psychologists’ involvement in the interrogations enabled the Justice Department in the George W. Bush administration to issue secret legal opinions that declared that the C.I.A.’s so-called enhanced interrogation program was legal, in part because health professionals were monitoring it to make sure that it was safe and that it did not constitute torture...

Officials said that the order to pull psychologists out of detainee operations at Guantánamo, issued about two weeks ago but not made public, is intended to protect the psychologists from violating the new rules, which could expose them to losing their licenses. Many states use the psychological association’s ethics code in their professional licensing requirements for psychologists.

“These psychologists are licensed for independent practice and are volunteers” at Guantánamo, Cmdr. Karin Burzynski of the Navy, a spokeswoman for the Southern Command, said in a statement. “They are bound by their respective professional organizations’ ethical guidelines, and General Kelly will not jeopardize them losing their credentials.”

The new rules specifically bar psychologists from any involvement in national security interrogations, and also bar them from providing mental health services to detainees at sites like Guantánamo that the United Nations has determined do not comply with international human rights law. Currently, no interrogations take place at Guantánamo, Commander Burzynski said, and instead only voluntary interviews are conducted when a detainee asks to speak with American personnel.

Makes sense. If the new rules don't allow psychologists to assist in torture, then there is no reason for them to be at America's premier House of Torture.