The United States is using the science of psychology to control people, former CIA contractor Steven Kelley says.

Kelly made the remarks in a phone interview with Press TV on Saturday after a report revealed on Friday that some of America's leading psychologists took part in and covered up the CIA's torture techniques during the administration of President George W. Bush.

The study conducted by a former US attorney, published by the New York Times on Friday, stated that a large number of American psychologists could be charged over their involvement in the CIA torture program after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

“Obviously, these are the individuals who are going to be implicated,” Kelly said, adding that perhaps they will be fired “to clean up the image, but the corruption of the American medical staff goes back a long time.”

“Getting these doctors to take money to do these things and break their oath is probably not as difficult as you’d think,” he stated.

“They have been doing this for so long in collusion with the government and the military,” Kelly pointed out.

The analyst went on to say that medical professionals act like a mafia and are using “this pseudo science of psychology and the mental institutions to control people and to stifle dissent.”

The report, completed this month, concludes that some of the American Psychological Association (APA)’s top officials, including its ethics director, sought to gain favor with US military officials by seeking to keep the association’s ethics policies in line with the Pentagon’s interrogation policies, while several prominent outside psychologists took actions that aided the CIA’s interrogation program and helped protect it from growing opposition inside the agency.

The CIA and the Pentagon both conducted harsh and torturous interrogations during the Bush administration, although the spy agency’s program included more brutal tactics.

The revelation, exposing years of false claims, has already led to at least one APA leadership firing and has created the potential for loss of licenses and even prosecutions.

“Whenever we look at the issues like this we like to think that something positive will come. I do not expect that is the case, rather I expect that they will become better at hiding what’s happening,” Kelly said.

“And if anything, the ultimate fact may be that they will have to actually execute these people who they are trying to extract information so that they don’t go back to the world and report on the methods of torture they were subjected to,” he observed.