CIA Renewed Contract With Psychologists Who Endorsed Waterboarding Weeks After Obama Took Office Before Firing Them

Amid the headlines about CIA director Leon Panetta's comments on Dick Cheney's motivations for his criticism of Obama, a much-bigger revelation was tucked into Jane Mayer's new story in the New Yorker.

Weeks after Obama took office, the CIA extended its contract with the former military psychologists who have been called the architects of waterboarding before eventually firing them:

In April, Panetta fired all the C.I.A.'s contract interrogators, including the former military psychologists who appear to have designed the most brutal interrogation techniques: James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen. The two men, who ran a consulting company, Mitchell, Jessen & Associates, had recommended that interrogators apply to detainees theories of "learned helplessness" that were based on experiments with abused dogs. The firm's principals reportedly billed the agency a thousand dollars a day for their services. "We saved some money in the deal, too!" Panetta said. (Remarkably, a month after Obama took office the C.I.A. had signed a fresh contract with the firm.)

James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen were paid $1,000 a day by the agency to oversee harsh interrogation techniques used on terror suspects, reported ABC News.

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

Mitchell and Jessen appear to have closed down their business, which was located in Spokane, Washington.

Mayer also reports that "most of the individuals who managed the secret interrogation program have since left the agency" except for CIA Deputy Director Stephen R. Kappes.

Kappes was previously the deputy director for operations from 2002 to 2004, where he was responsible for the counterterrorism division that directed the interrogation program.

Comments

[MikeRdg]

"most brutal interrogation techniques: James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen. The two men, who ran a consulting company, Mitchell, Jessen & Associates, had recommended that interrogators apply to detainees theories of "learned helplessness" that were based on experiments with abused dogs."

Now we know why Mitt Romneys dog was tied to the top of his car! ------

But come on Mitchell and Jessen, was not learned helplessness used on memberswho decent church members too, by your lds good ole boys?!

Your sure the old Romney family didn't call for a few hints?

Come on.............. let's be truthful.................

[MikeRdg]

Just like it! The most brutal would come from a bunch of Mormon priesthood holders! Pigs! Regular Oink! Oinks! Swine you all are!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

[jlab]

Nice little back-and-forth with yourself you got going on there.

[aznurse]

find them.

[Uchenna Oguekwe]

Who cares. They are gone.

[Phenlandia]

Until the Republicans regroup in a decade and start winning again. And then they're back.

[abouttime]

They are not gone!
Kappes is in CIA!
(see below or read the entire short article)

[abouttime]

NO! They are not! Kappes is still in CIA!

"Mayer also reports that "most of the individuals who managed the secret interrogation program have since left the agency" except for CIA Deputy Director Stephen R. Kappes.
Kappes was previously the deputy director for operations from 2002 to 2004, where he was responsible for the counterterrorism division that directed the interrogation program"

Congress MUST investigate and get him out!
The Justice Department must investigate!
An Independenct prosecutor must be assigned!

This is maddness and under Obama it continues!

[chazzman]

They might be gone, but not far enough. Find them. Send them to gitmo and use their techniques on them to obtain the goods on cheney/shrub. See how they like it. GBA and our POTUS

[mesmerised]

Enemy combatants captured on the battlefield who are reasonably believed to have information that could lead to the deaths of civilians should be subjected to enhanced interrogation. If they have such information, they are still actively fighting the war through their silence. They are co-conspirators with those enemy forces who are still in the fight, who can still pull off plans to kill us.

This is war. We drop bombs on them and shoot them in the battlefield, killing and maiming them, and that is understood as a reasonable means of force to stop their deadly offensive actions. There is no difference between those in the field and those in our custody who can lead to killing our people.

Obama is wrong. "Progressives" are wrong. On one hand they are sheltered and naive, and on the other, and most importantly, they hate America as it's currently constituted and they use the enhanced interrogation argument as fodder to demonize their political opponents.

These psychologists shouldn't be punished. They should be taken out of the line of fire of ignorant, hatefilled political hacks who weaken American.

[johndtuttle]

If they are enemy combatants then the Geneva Convention applies and the Military code of Justice. If they are criminals then normal rules of legal interrogation apply.

End of Story.

Stop trying to make America as evil as our enemies, k?

[amalfedup]

Coward! Living in fear of the bogyman? You are your worst enemy. Torturing people in the national security is what weakens America and tarnishes its reputation in the civilized world.

[mesmerised]

I'm sorry you can't think beyond the spoon fed crap you get from the MSM. But then, you'd need first hand experience to understand. I absolutely goddamn guarantee you you'd change your mind and be embarrassed for the position you now hold.

[Phenlandia]

I'm sorry. My eyes kept glossing over mid-sentence. You'll have to write that again less stupidly.

[mesmerised]

The combatants to whom I refer must be captured from offensive positions on the field of battle, and must be REASONABLY believed to have information that could prevent killing Americans. There would have to be legal people on standby assessing the information and have it approved by someone acting as a judge. It would be rare, perhaps never happening. You couldn't randomly grab just any prisoner and put him through the mill just for sh*t and grins.

You obviously have no experience and have been strictly spoon fed information from people who don't know what they're talking about.

You'll have to stop being blinded by ideology and accept the real world.

[zanzig]

Your entire argument is premised on "enemy combatants captured on the battlefield", when it seems quite clear that a large proportion of the poor sods detained were not captured on any "battlefield", nor were they "enemy combatants". They seem to have been produced to the US Army in response to bounties being proffered to the population at large in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and even Northern Africa. The Uighurs are a case in point: they were in Afghanistan and Pakistan looking for WORK, when they were betrayed for a bounty by the Pakistanis. All too reminiscent of the collaborators who betrayed Jewish and other victims to the Nazis in World War II for their own benefit. The Nazis too thought torture was appropriate to achieve their ends.

[mesmerised]

You completely miss the point. The combatants to whom I refer must be captured from offensive positions on the field of battle, and must be REASONABLY believed to have information that could prevent killing Americans. There would have to be legal people on standby assessing the information and have it approved by someone acting as a judge. It would be rare, perhaps never happening. You couldn't randomly grab just any prisoner and put him through the mill just for sh*t and grins.

You obviously have no experience and have been strictly spoon fed information from people who don't know what they're talking about.

[najablah]

Fortunately, these psychologists are not, never have been, and never will be "in the line of fire." Only right-wingers take up guns to settle their political differences.

[TJCole]

"Dirty deeds, done dirt cheap..!"

[Richard Davis 1]

They are gone from the CIA to consulting positions with private firms, to return with the next Repbulican administration, unpunished, untarninshed, but definitely not unpaid.

[najablah]

Exactly. These "doctors" should have their licenses revoked. Unfortunately, people fail upwards in Washington.

[johndtuttle]

They are Psychologists, not Doctors.

[Phenlandia]

Bingo. Like all the other right-wing vampires both here and in Europe, they might retreat for a while, but just wait til sundown...

[MikeRdg]

maybe they will get a serious garmie wedgie with their magic pants!