ABC News Outs CIA's $1,000 a Day Specialists on Waterboarding, Interrogations

[jefferson_dem]

The CIA's $1,000 a Day Specialists on Waterboarding, Interrogations
The New Focus on Two Retired Military Psychologists Called the 'Architects' of the CIA's Techniques
By BRIAN ROSS, MATTHEW COLE, and JOSEPH RHEE
April 30, 2009—



As the secrets about the CIA's interrogation techniques continue to come out, there's new information about the frequency and severity of their use, contradicting an 2007 ABC News report, and a new focus on two private contractors who were apparently directing the brutal sessions that President Obama calls torture.

According to current and former government officials, the CIA's secret waterboarding program was designed and assured to be safe by two well-paid psychologists now working out of an unmarked office building in Spokane, Washington.

Bruce Jessen and Jim Mitchell, former military officers, together founded Mitchell Jessen and Associates.

Both men declined to speak to ABC News citing non-disclosure agreements with the CIA. But sources say Jessen and Mitchell together designed and implemented the CIA's interrogation program.

"It's clear that these psychologists had an important role in developing what became the CIA's torture program," said Jameel Jaffer, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union.

Former U.S. officials say the two men were essentially the architects of the CIA's 10-step interrogation plan that culminated in waterboarding.

Associates say the two made good money doing it, boasting of being paid a $1,000 a day by the CIA to oversee the use of the techniques on top al Qaeda suspects at CIA secret sites.

"The whole intense interrogation concept that we hear about, is essentially their concepts," according to Col. Steven Kleinman, an Air Force interrogator.

Both Mitchell and Jessen were previously involved in the U.S. military program to train pilots how to survive behind enemy lines and resist brutal tactics if captured.

Mitchell and Jensen Lacked Experience in Actual Interrogations

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http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=7471217&page=1

[cbc5g]

1. Shame on ABC

The torturers should be prosecuted for their crimes, but putting their lives and their families lives in danger is poor journalism, it's disgusting. I've never liked ABC because of the right wing slant, and this just makes it worse.

[Clio the Leo]

3. Exactly. NT

[jefferson_dem]

6. Nope.

This is real investigative journalism -- muckraking, as it should be practiced. Dig up the raw facts and report them. Shine the light in those dark corners. All in the name of accountability.

[GentryDixon]

13. This was in the Salt Lake Tribune yesterday.

An article was written by David Irvine, a Salt Lake attorney and former Utah legislator. He was commissioned in the U.S. Army Reserve as a strategic intelligence officer in 1967 and retired as a brigadier general. He taught prisoner of war interrogation and military law for 18 years for the Sixth United States Army Intelligence School.

LDS lawyers, psychologists had a hand in torture policies:

http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_12256286

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

8. The public has a right to know.

What if their family knows the location of a bomb that's about to explode and take innocent lives?

[tishaLA]

9. Sorry but the ethics of the psychologists, not ABC, are in question

It's amazing to me that psychologists would use their training to undermine the others' psychological health. This is as much of an ethical issue as the physicians who were there to make sure people stayed only on the verge of death but never crossed over--probably worse, because these assholes created the psychological torture instead of just overseeing it.

[stillcool]

10. I'm sure there is a reason..

why they are doing this. Maybe to deflect attention from the past Administration. I have a feeling we will be seeing a lot of torture stories that have nothing to do with the Bush Administration, but everything to do with someone else that did it too..or those bad apples.

[jefferson_dem]

2. FYI: Sludge has his stupid red siren on for this bit of ace muckraking.

Freepers are going crazy. I guess the identities of Cheney's thuggish hired guns are supposed to remain classified?

[rucky]

4. Cheney found his patsies?

How else would this get "leaked"? Private contractors, eh?

I guess the buck stops with Jim & Bruce.

[Supersedeas]

12. patsies dressed in scientific clothing

[DURHAM D]

5. I want to know if either one of the cowboys was on the ground at

Gitmo, Abu Ghraib or Bagram. I want to know if these two were inserted into the process and allowed to give orders to American military personnel. I want to know if they were or appeared to be in the chain of command.

In fact, I want a list of every single civilian that was allowed into the chain. Then, I want all of them punished in the public square. Preferably near a large military installation.

[Thrill]

7. Holder has got to prosecute now

[stillcool]

11. no..Holder has to appoint..

a Special Prosecutor. But..seeing as how supposedly at least half of the American people are okey-dokey with torture, what's the rush? It would be great if people actually contacted their representatives on a regular basis, but that will never happen. We will just sit back and watch what happens.