Back in the Spotlight as Predicted: Will Justice Prevail or Be Swept Under a Rug

Jessen and Mitchell

Analysis Statement of Jessen and Mitchell Credentials

Updated (April 24, 2016) of the following, which was posted earlier:

The heart of the lawsuit by former detainees against the two phony CIA program designers, Jessen and Mitchell, is expressed in simple terms from this updated source link.  

First of all, this is the first time a case about the CIA’s use of torture has gotten is far in any American court. A big reason for that is because it’s harder to argue that classified information was at risk, since much of it was declassified in the Senate Select Committee for Intelligence report on the CIA’s use of torture, over 500 pages of which was released in December 2014.

That report confirmed that under former President George W. Bush, “... interrogations of CIA detainees were brutal and far worse than the CIA represented to policymakers and others at the time.”

The Senate report documented a variety of torture methods used on detainees: (1) waterboarding (which has been illegal, unlawful, and a war crime for decades); (2) sleep deprivation, (3) threats made against detainees families, (4) physical beatings, (5) rectal rehydration, (6) ice baths, (7) putting detainees in coffin-sized boxes (sometimes filled with creepy insects, and, (8) a few other horrifying abuses.

And, all done under the label of “national security to keep us safe in name of the American people.”

My simple retort to that weak-ass excuse is and has been along this, and excuse me for being so blunt:

I have written extensively on the issue of torture and this is a major update here regarding key previous posts about the two pictured above (Jessen and Mitchell). This story has this headline:

“100 men who were tortured by the CIA are now suing the program’s (two) designers in Federal court…”

First, some key background info on Jessen and Mitchell here, here, here,  here, and here.

Whether this story goes any further than this headlines remains to be seen. If and when it does, I will provide updates.

For the first time since the US launched the so-called War on Terror, two former CIA contractors are in federal court.

Former Air Force Psychologists James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, who designed the CIA's torture program, are trying to get a judge to throw out the lawsuit filed on behalf of some of the men who were tortured.

More than 100 men say they were subjected to water boarding and beatings during interrogations in Afghanistan.

According to the 2014 US Senate Intelligence Committee report on the torture program, Mitchell and Jessen, neither of whom who had any experience in interrogations, were paid $81 million teach the CIA how to break the detainees during questioning.

The Senate Intelligence Committee torture report called the program “brutal, physically harmful, and not effective.”

More will be posted later as this story takes root, or not. That is to say it may not take root due to provisions already in place to give those two men cover that may be in the form of any contract between them and the CIA – i.e., gives them legal cover as it were if something like this ever were to come up and now it has.

For example, in a brief June 2009 e-mail exchange, Mitchell said his nondisclosure agreement with the CIA prevented him from commenting about the program details. He also suggested that his and Jessen’s work had been mischaracterized. Time will tell what happens next.