CIA torture architect breaks silence to defend 'enhanced interrogation' [View all]

[malaise]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/18/cia-torture-architect-enhanced-interrogation
<snip>
• James Mitchell 'highly skeptical' of Senate report on CIA torture
• 'It was not illegal based on the law at the time'
• Mitchell said to have waterboarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
• Interview: 'I'm just a guy who got asked to do something for his country'


The psychologist regarded as the architect of the CIA's “enhanced interrogation” program has broken a seven-year silence to defend the use of torture techniques against al-Qaida terror suspects in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

In an uncompromising and wide-ranging interview with the Guardian, his first public remarks since he was linked to the program in 2007, James Mitchell was dismissive of a Senate intelligence committee report on CIA torture in which he features, and which is currently at the heart of an intense row between legislators and the agency.

The committee’s report found that the interrogation techniques devised by Mitchell, a retired air force psychologist, were far more brutal than disclosed at the time, and did not yield useful intelligence. These included waterboarding, stress positions, sleep deprivation for days at a time, confinement in a box and being slammed into walls.

But Mitchell, who was reported to have personally waterboarded accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, remains unrepentant. “The people on the ground did the best they could with the way they understood the law at the time,” he said. “You can't ask someone to put their life on the line and think and make a decision without the benefit of hindsight and then eviscerate them in the press 10 years later.”

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Fuck you Mitchell! Fuck you Bush! Fuck you Cheney! Fuck you Gonzales!
Fuck all war criminals. Torture is a war crime.