USA-CIA/PSYCHOLOGISTS ACLU sues two psychologists who devised CIA interrogation program

Record ID: 134827

  • Title: USA-CIA/PSYCHOLOGISTS ACLU sues two psychologists who devised CIA interrogation program
  • Date: 13th October 2015
  • Summary: GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA (APRIL 27, 2010) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF DETAINEES WALKING INSIDE DETENTION CENTER, SHOT FROM BEHIND FENCE
  • Embargoed: 28th October 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAAR69NSPR4ULDA2583QJ6C55OT
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The American Civil Liberties Union sued two psychologists who devised the CIA's Bush-era interrogation program on Tuesday (October 13), saying they encouraged the agency "to adopt torture as official policy" and made millions of dollars in the process.
    James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, two former military psychologists, "designed the torture methods and performed illegal human experimentation on CIA prisoners to test and refine the program," the ACLU said in a statement.
    "They personally took part in torture sessions and oversaw the program's implementation for the CIA," it said.
    The CIA declined to comment on the suit.
    The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Washington state on behalf of three U.S. prisoners - Gul Rahman, Suleiman Abdullah Salim and Mohamed Ahmed Ben Soud.
    "There's been no accountability for these men. They've received no apologies. They've received no compensation and Gul Rahman's family has never even received his body," Dror Ladin, one of the ACLU attorneys working on the case, told Reuters.
    He said Salim and Ben Soud suffered lasting psychological and physical damage and that Gul died from hypothermia caused by dehydration and exposure to cold.
    "Now that the Senate torture report that came out at the end of last year provided enormous details about Mitchell and Jessen's role in the torture program, now is the time that our clients thought was right to try to seek justice and accountability," Ladin said.
    A U.S. Senate report last year found the CIA paid $80 million to a company run by two former U.S. Air Force psychologists without experience in interrogation or counterterrorism who recommended waterboarding, slaps to the face and mock burial for prisoners suspected of being terrorists.
    The psychologists were not named in the report but U.S. intelligence sources later identified them as Mitchell and Jessen.
    According to Ladin, their methods were extensive.
    "Hanging people up in very painful stress positions for days on end so they couldn't sleep; they involved waterboarding; they involved dousing people with water; they involved stuffing people into small boxes that were smaller than coffins for extended periods," he said, adding that they would also "keep people naked with very little food in freezing cold rooms and total darkness; bombard them with very, very loud music or sounds -- it was an effort to really break people down."
    The United States never charged the men with a crime.
    The lawsuit said the psychologists were liable for war crimes including torture and non-consensual medical and scientific human experimentation.
    According to Ladin, Mitchell and Jessen were likely not totally surprised by ACLU's filing.
    "I can only speculate that Mitchell and Jessen may have figured that one day their victims would sue them, because the contract that they entered into with the CIA included a five million dollar legal indemnity for them and for their corporation that was involved in the torture," he said.
    "We're glad that our clients are having their moment now."
    The CIA outsourced more than 80 percent of its interrogation program to the company, Mitchell Jessen & Associates of Spokane, Washington, for its work from 2005 until the termination of the arrangement in 2009, the Senate report said. The CIA also paid the company $1 million to protect it and its employees from legal liability.
    The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages of a minimum $75,000 for the men.
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