Psychologists belonging to one of America’s most prestigious medical bodies lied and covered up their extensive role in the torture of terrorist suspects after 9/11, an independent review has found.

Members of the American Psychological Association (APA) – the largest body of its kind in the United States - face being fired, losing their licence or even being prosecuted in light of the revelation, which follows years of denials.

An independent review by a former assistant US attorney, David Hoffman, has undermined the APA’s repeated denials that some of its 130,000 members were complicit in torture, the Guardian reported.

The APA had insisted for years that it strict code of ethics prohibited its members to aid the torture of detainees – while permitting involvement in military and intelligence interrogations.

The APA had sought to refute repeated media reports that it members were complicit in torture, and that it suppressed internal dissent from anti-torture doctors and cleared members of wrongdoing.

CIA torture report: The 10 most harrowing stories Show all 10 1 /10 CIA torture report: The 10 most harrowing stories CIA torture report: The 10 most harrowing stories CIA torture report 1. Of the 119 CIA detainees, 26 should not have been apprehended. Among them was Abu Hudhaifa, who was “subjected to ice water baths and 66 hours of standing sleep deprivation” before the CIA discovered that he was probably “not the person he was believed to be.” CIA torture report: The 10 most harrowing stories CIA torture report 2. President Bush received his first briefing on enhanced interrogation techniques in 2006, about four years after the programme started. According to CIA records, Bush expressed discomfort with an image of a detainee “chained to the ceiling, clothed in a diaper.” CIA torture report: The 10 most harrowing stories CIA torture report 3. The CIA used rectal feeding and rectal rehydration on at least five detainees. Even though detainee Majid Khan was cooperating with feedings, for example, the CIA subjected him to “involuntary rectal feeding and rectal hydration” and would puree his lunch tray, which was then “rectally infused.” CIA torture report: The 10 most harrowing stories CIA torture report 4. CIA interrogators threatened to harm the family members of at least three detainees. In one case, a detainee was told that his mother's throat would be cut. CIA torture report: The 10 most harrowing stories CIA torture report 5. The CIA apprehended two foreigners working for a “partner government” allied with the agency. They were subjected to sleep deprivation and dietary manipulation. The two detainees were trying to give the CIA information on possible future al-Qaeda attacks. It took them months to get released. CIA torture report: The 10 most harrowing stories CIA torture report 6. Abu Zubaida, the CIA's first detainee, spent 266 hours in a coffin-size confinement box. Zubaida, who was born Zayn al-Abidin Muhammed Hussein, often “cried, begged, pleaded, and whimpered” and was told that the only way he would leave the facility was in the coffin-shaped box. CIA torture report: The 10 most harrowing stories CIA torture report 7. When Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who was waterboarded 183 times, tried to breathe during the procedure, interrogators held his lips and poured water over his mouth. CIA torture report: The 10 most harrowing stories CIA torture report 8. The Senate committee found a photo of what looked like a well-used waterboarding station at a site where there was no reported use of the technique. The CIA could not explain the presence of the waterboard. CIA torture report: The 10 most harrowing stories CIA torture report 9. Of the at least 26 detainees who were wrongfully held, one was “intellectually challenged.” Interrogators taped this detainee crying and used it as leverage against one of his relatives. CIA torture report: The 10 most harrowing stories CIA torture report CIA officers would “strip a detainee naked, shackle him in the standing position for up to 72 hours, and douse [him] repeatedly with cold water.”

The Hoffman report finds the APA used its close relationship with the CIA and US military to aid abusive interrogations. American spies are said to have relied heavily on psychologists to design and implement techniques such as waterboarding.

Unnamed sources with knowledge of the report told the paper that they expected a wave of firings and resignations among the upper ranks of the APA.

Several officials are likely to be sacked, sources told the Guardian, including the APA’s ethics chief Stephen Behnke – who recast the APA’s guidelines to be more open to torture techniques.

And evidence from the Hoffman report could be referred to the FBI to investigate potential criminal charges for torture against APA members.

Human rights groups have been urging for years that those involved in torture should be prosecuted, and the Hoffman report appears to reopen this possibility.

Late on Friday, the APA issued a statement that recognised the report's findings.