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33 replies
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CIA paid psychologists $80m to devise and use torture techniques
Report shines light on role of outside contractors in developing brutal interrogation skills, including water boarding, sleep deprivation and use of insects
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11283967/CIA-paid-psychologists-80m-to-devise-and-use-torture-techniques.html
Report shines light on role of outside contractors in developing brutal interrogation skills, including water boarding, sleep deprivation and use of insects
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11283967/CIA-paid-psychologists-80m-to-devise-and-use-torture-techniques.html
Torture report reveals CIA spent $300 million
by Gregory Wallace
CNN, Dec. 9, 2014
The CIA spent "well over" $300 million on the CIA's covert detention and interrogation program, according to the blockbuster Senate report made public Tuesday.
What exactly did that money buy? The report offers some answers -- and hides others. A relatively quick scan of the report found more than two dozen instances in which dollar figures were covered over by a thick black bar or omitted entirely.
The money funded an elaborate operation including the detention centers themselves. Additional cash -- sometimes called "subsidies" -- was used to "show appreciation" to host countries that housed the jails.
SNIP...
Outsourcing to former CIA employees:
The report reveals that two psychologists formed a company "specifically for the purpose of conducting their work with the CIA." The company was paid at least $81 million and had a nearly-exclusive contract for staffing the facilities.
[font size="6"][font color="green"]Shortly after the company was founded, "the CIA outsourced virtually all aspects of the program." Many employees were former CIA employees.[/font color][/font size]
The company provided both interrogators and psychologists. According to the Senate report, an inspector general review noted "concerns about conflict of interest" because of how the contractor was paid.
The company would assess the mental state of detainees. It would then collect extra money if its own interrogators were cleared to use "enhanced interrogation techniques."
EXCERPT...
http://money.cnn.com/2014/12/09/news/economy/torture-report-cost/
Light on the dungeon, from Human Rights Watch:
US: CIA Torture is Unfinished Business
Year After Senate Report, Still No Criminal Inquiry, Redress Provided
Human Rights Watch, DECEMBER 1, 2015
(Washington, DC) – Obama administration claims that legal obstacles prevent criminal investigations into torture by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) are unpersuasive, and risk leaving a legacy of torture as a policy option, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Sufficient evidence exists for the attorney general to order criminal investigations of senior United States officials and others involved in the post-September 11 CIA program for torture, conspiracy to torture, and other crimes under US law.
The 153-page report, “No More Excuses: A Roadmap to Justice for CIA Torture,” sets out evidence to support the main criminal charges that can be brought against those responsible for state-sanctioned torture, and challenges claims that prosecutions are not legally possible. The report also outlines US legal obligations to provide redress to victims of torture, and steps the US should take to do so. It also details actions that other countries should take to pursue criminal investigations into CIA torture.
SNIP...
One defense frequently heard is that the CIA and senior White House officials relied on legal opinions by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel purporting to find that “enhanced interrogation techniques” were lawful – the so-called Torture Memos. However, the Senate summary provides evidence that CIA officials knew from the outset that those practices would violate anti-torture laws. Other evidence shows that CIA and White House officials went shopping for guarantees against criminal prosecution and when that was refused, helped to craft those same legal opinions authorizing the torture that they would rely upon.
SNIP...
“If the United States with its established democracy and stable political system can flout its legal obligation to prosecute torture, it undermines respect for the rule of law the world over,” Roth said. “Government officials who went shopping for and helped to craft legal opinions justifying the unjustifiable shouldn’t be able to rely on those opinions to shield themselves from liability.”
CONTINUED w/links...
https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/12/01/us-cia-torture-unfinished-business
Lots more there on what it means for you, Dear Reader.
?itok=p1APVXTm Born in 1949, raised in Idaho
Joined the Air Force as an enlisted man, attended college and graduate school while in the service
Ph.D. in psychology, Utah State University. Dissertation on family therapy.
In late 2001, obtained copy, possibly through CIA channels, of alleged "Al-Qaeda training manual" that discussed resistance to standard interrogation procedures.
From 2002 on, left air force to work with fellow psychologist James Mitchell in private corporation, Mitchell Jessen Associates, that contracted with the CIA to supervise "enhanced" interrogation procedures--i.e., torture.
Jessen's military background, contacts, draw him into CIA planning for detainee interrogation
As chief psychologist for the air force's SERE (Survival Evasion Resistance Escape) program, Jessen helped train special forces and aviation officers and enlisted men in dealing with abuse that might be expected if they were captured by enemy forces. SERE training, based on the experience of American soldiers captured in the Korean and Vietnam wars, included isolation, mock interrogations, and exposure to waterboarding and other forms of torture. Jessen reported to Col. Roger Aldrich, a Special Forces officer regarded as a "legendary military survival trainer." Aldrich is believed to have well-developed contacts within the CIA, who may have brought him into the early post-9/11 discussion/planning stages regarding interrogations of suspected enemy combatants. Perhaps through Aldrich, a copy of a document alleged to represent an "al-Qaeda training manual" was obtained by Jessen, who shared it with James Mitchell, a fellow psychologist recently retired from the military, who had worked with Aldrich and Jessen in the SERE program.
Aldrich had already contacted the CIA regarding SERE, which he considered the military's most valuable resource with respect to interrogation expertise. In truth, however, SERE only orchestrated mock interrogations; no one in the program, certainly not Mitchell or Jessen, had expertise in actual interrogations.
Jessen retires from the military for a private-sector opportunity as a civilian torturer
Although the "training manual" that wound up in the hands of Jessen and Mitchell does not mention al-Qaeda by name and may in fact be a CIA-produced document, they were able to use it as the basis for a torture contract proposal. Their argument was that al-Qaeda was familiar with standard interrogation techniques, as described in the "training manual," and thus was prepared to counter them. Only SERE-like torture could crack these "trained terrorists" and induce them to reveal helpful information regarding their organization and its plans. The proposal utilized psychological jargon in asserting that the goal of the torture should be "learned helplessness," a conditioned response to dehumanizing treatment. Jessen and Mitchell wrote up the proposal as though these ideas were original to them, but it is likely that military colleagues, perhaps including Col. Aldrich, helped them tailor the write-up to the interests of the CIA.
He and Mitchell formed a company known as Mitchell Jessen Associates (MJA), which consisted basically of a phone answering service and possibly a small office in Spokane, WA. MJA contracted with the CIA to conduct torture sessions at black sites around the globe. Mitchell and Jessen often personally led the "enhanced interrogations" and/or trained others. While Mitchell maintained something of a public profile, participating in conferences and other activities so as to sustain MJA's reputation as a "professional" outfit, Jessen apparently remained more or less under cover for long periods, quietly completing CIA torture assignments.
Joined the Air Force as an enlisted man, attended college and graduate school while in the service
Ph.D. in psychology, Utah State University. Dissertation on family therapy.
In late 2001, obtained copy, possibly through CIA channels, of alleged "Al-Qaeda training manual" that discussed resistance to standard interrogation procedures.
From 2002 on, left air force to work with fellow psychologist James Mitchell in private corporation, Mitchell Jessen Associates, that contracted with the CIA to supervise "enhanced" interrogation procedures--i.e., torture.
Jessen's military background, contacts, draw him into CIA planning for detainee interrogation
As chief psychologist for the air force's SERE (Survival Evasion Resistance Escape) program, Jessen helped train special forces and aviation officers and enlisted men in dealing with abuse that might be expected if they were captured by enemy forces. SERE training, based on the experience of American soldiers captured in the Korean and Vietnam wars, included isolation, mock interrogations, and exposure to waterboarding and other forms of torture. Jessen reported to Col. Roger Aldrich, a Special Forces officer regarded as a "legendary military survival trainer." Aldrich is believed to have well-developed contacts within the CIA, who may have brought him into the early post-9/11 discussion/planning stages regarding interrogations of suspected enemy combatants. Perhaps through Aldrich, a copy of a document alleged to represent an "al-Qaeda training manual" was obtained by Jessen, who shared it with James Mitchell, a fellow psychologist recently retired from the military, who had worked with Aldrich and Jessen in the SERE program.
Aldrich had already contacted the CIA regarding SERE, which he considered the military's most valuable resource with respect to interrogation expertise. In truth, however, SERE only orchestrated mock interrogations; no one in the program, certainly not Mitchell or Jessen, had expertise in actual interrogations.
Jessen retires from the military for a private-sector opportunity as a civilian torturer
Although the "training manual" that wound up in the hands of Jessen and Mitchell does not mention al-Qaeda by name and may in fact be a CIA-produced document, they were able to use it as the basis for a torture contract proposal. Their argument was that al-Qaeda was familiar with standard interrogation techniques, as described in the "training manual," and thus was prepared to counter them. Only SERE-like torture could crack these "trained terrorists" and induce them to reveal helpful information regarding their organization and its plans. The proposal utilized psychological jargon in asserting that the goal of the torture should be "learned helplessness," a conditioned response to dehumanizing treatment. Jessen and Mitchell wrote up the proposal as though these ideas were original to them, but it is likely that military colleagues, perhaps including Col. Aldrich, helped them tailor the write-up to the interests of the CIA.
He and Mitchell formed a company known as Mitchell Jessen Associates (MJA), which consisted basically of a phone answering service and possibly a small office in Spokane, WA. MJA contracted with the CIA to conduct torture sessions at black sites around the globe. Mitchell and Jessen often personally led the "enhanced interrogations" and/or trained others. While Mitchell maintained something of a public profile, participating in conferences and other activities so as to sustain MJA's reputation as a "professional" outfit, Jessen apparently remained more or less under cover for long periods, quietly completing CIA torture assignments.
http://tortureaccountability.org/bruce_jessen
it is "therapeutic" to review it today
CIA declassifies additional portions of KUBARK...(April 8, 2014 MuckRock.com)
https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2014/apr/08/cia-declassifies-additional-portions-kubark-interr
Mental health professionals also played a huge role in both the Franklin Credit cover-up and the ongoing blowback from it.
Chapter 21-Omaha
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016139460
So now it's 2016, and this thread is worth another go, in the context of "mental health".
