"The two Ph.D CIA yahoo Contractors..."

Bruce Jessen (top) and Jim Mitchell

This extract from the NY Times [click here]. The story is quite extensive and very detailed. Scott Shane from the Times did a very excellent job on this story - and that story is not over yet.

"Mitchell and Jessen were military retirees (USAF) and school-educated/trained psychologists. They were on the lookout for business opportunities. They found an excellent customer in the Central Intelligence Agency, where in 2002 they became the architects of the most important interrogation program in the history of American counterterrorism."

As Paul Harvey liked to say, "Now, the rest of the story."

"They had never carried out a real interrogation, only mock sessions in the military training they had overseen. They had no relevant scholarship; their Ph.D. dissertations were on high blood pressure and family therapy. They had no language skills and no expertise on Al Qaeda. But they had psychology credentials and an intimate knowledge of a brutal treatment regimen used decades ago by Chinese Communists. For an administration eager to get tough on those who had killed 3,000 Americans, that was enough."

"So “Doc Mitchell” and “Doc Jessen,” as they had been known in the Air Force, helped lead the United States into a wrenching conflict over torture, terror and values that seven years later has not run its course."

The bottom line and I hope AG Holder gets to the bottom of this line soon and prosecutes these two and others - for they are guilty as sin (of war crimes), plus their harsh efforts were non-effective.

Cite the Abu Zubaydah case that gave reason to question the Mitchell-Jessen "harsh technique" plan: The prisoner had given up his most valuable information without coercion (he had already named and given the location that led to the capture of KSM - which FBI supervisor, Mr. Ali Soufan got after he broke Zubaydah, and without torture).

But top CIA officials made no changes, and the methods would be used on at least 27 more prisoners, including Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who was waterboarded 183 times.

The business plans of Dr. Mitchell and Dr. Jessen, meanwhile, were working out beautifully. They were paid $1,000 to $2,000 a day apiece, one official said. They had permanent desks in the Counterterrorist Center, and could now claim genuine experience in interrogating high-level Qaeda operatives.

This story still unfolds. People need to be held accountable. Our national honor is at stake - not only that, but we still have two soldiers held by the enemy: one in Iraq and one in Afghanistan.

The question has to be asked, "How have they been treated, or more importantly, how will they be treated? Will they be treated like we treated detainees? If so, those two soldiers are in deep trouble."

— dmf