CIA Torture

On April 28, 2004, CBS-60 Minutes broadcast the first of a horrific series of excruciatingly graphic Abu Ghraib prison photographs documenting atrocities. The American public was shocked by the depraved sadistic cruelty documented in photographs from Abu Ghraib prison showing Iraqi prisoners stripped naked, with bags over their heads, forced into contorted humiliating positions; some…

Behavioral Science Consultation Teams (BSCTs) – primarily psychologists and psychiatrists – were integral to CIA’s brutal interrogations using torture. In June 2002, upon their arrival at GTMO, psychiatrist Maj. Paul Burney, psychologist John Leso and a psychiatric technician had expected to help U.S. soldiers cope with extremely stressful deployment. Instead, (according to testimony by Maj.…

The memo was written by psychiatrist Major Paul Burney and psychologist Major John Leso, is still classified but was reviewed and cited in the Senate Armed Services Committee Report. The memo describes three interrogation technique categories intended to “develop rapport, promote cooperation, and counter resistance.” Some techniques were drawn from his SERE training while “other…

As pertinent U.S. government documents slowly emerge from the dark, a record of criminal violence, subterfuge and suppression of evidence is shown to run very deep. The main purpose of torture was not, as the American people had been led to believe, to prevent a ticking bomb from detonating and thereby save lives. The real…

David Cole, a leading constitutional scholar (Georgetown University) who co-authored Less Safe, Less Free: Why America Is Losing the War on Terror (2007) noted in a recent 2015 OpEd: “Responsibility for the program lies not with the C.I.A. alone, but also with everyone else, up to the highest levels of the White House, who said…

The Joint Task Force of Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO) requested permission to use torture techniques such as, isolation, sensory deprivation, stripping off clothing, hooding, exploiting the detainee’s phobias (such as a fear of dogs) to induce stress, and “scenarios designed to convince the detainee that death or severely painful consequences are imminent for him and/or his family.”…

Military Lawyers Raise Legal & Ethical Red Flags Rejecting Guantanamo Intelligence Request for use of torture.  The Chief of the Army’s International and Operational Law Division wrote that techniques such as stress positions, deprivation of light and auditory stimuli, and use of phobias to induce stress “crosses the line of ‘humane’ treatment,” would “likely be…

“CIA experts drew up a list of interrogation techniques that differed from those Zubaydah had successfully resisted. George [Tenet] assured me all interrogations would be performed by experienced intelligence professionals who had undergone extensive training. Medical personnel would be on-site to guarantee that the detainee was not physically or mentally harmed. “At my direction, Department…

U.S. Definition of Torture: 18 U.S. Code sec. 2340 (effective 1994)  (1) “torture” means an act committed by a person acting under the color of law specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering (other than pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions) upon another person within his custody or physical control; (2) “severe…

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld ignored the serious legal and ethical red flags raised by military lawyers, and granted blanket authority for use of Category I and II of coercive SERE tactics in detainee interrogations. Category III, which includes waterboarding was not included at this time. The secret JTF GTMO ‘SERE’ Interrogation Standard Operating Procedure…

A Justice Department Inspector General Report (2008; revised when parts were declassified 2009) provides details of alleged abuse of detainees in the military zones, including military misconduct observed by FBI agents at Guantanamo, Afghanistan, and Iraq between 2001 and 2004. One thousand FBI agents were interviewed. The Report states that DoJ Inspector General was unable to…

Defense Secretary Rumsfeld rescinded his authorization of many coercive interrogation methods as a result of the continued objection by military lawyers who questioned these abusive tactics noting that they likely would be judged as violating the Torture Convention’s prohibition against “acts of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” A persistent critic was the Navy’s…