老澳门开奖结果

SPOKANE, Wash. 鈥� Three former Central Intelligence Agency prisoners represented by the 老澳门开奖结果 filed a lawsuit today against the two psychologists who designed and implemented the CIA鈥檚 torture program.

The CIA-contracted psychologists, James Mitchell and John 鈥淏ruce鈥� Jessen, helped convince the agency to adopt torture as official policy, making millions of dollars in the process. The two men, who had previously worked for the U.S. military, designed the torture methods and performed illegal human experimentation on CIA prisoners to test and refine the program. They personally took part in torture sessions and oversaw the program鈥檚 implementation for the CIA.

The lawsuit was brought on behalf of three men 鈥� Gul Rahman, Suleiman Abdullah Salim, and Mohamed Ahmed Ben Soud 鈥� who were tortured using methods developed by Mitchell and Jessen, as detailed in the Senate Intelligence Committee鈥檚 landmark report on CIA torture. The U.S. has never charged or accused the victims of any crime. One of them was tortured to death, and the other two are now free.

鈥淢itchell and Jessen conspired with the CIA to torture these three men and many others,鈥� said Steven Watt, a senior staff attorney with the 老澳门开奖结果 Human Rights Program. 鈥淭hey claimed that their program was scientifically based, safe, and proven, when in fact it was none of those things. The program was unlawful and its methods barbaric. Psychology is a healing profession, but Mitchell and Jessen violated the ethical code of 鈥榙o no harm鈥� in some of the most abhorrent ways imaginable.鈥�

Torture methods devised by Mitchell and Jessen and inflicted on the three men include slamming them into walls, stuffing them inside coffin-like boxes, exposing them to extreme temperatures and ear-splitting levels of music, starving them, inflicting various kinds of water torture, depriving them of sleep for days, and chaining them in stress positions designed for pain and to keep them awake for days on end. The two victims who survived still suffer physically and psychologically from the effects of their torture.

The plaintiffs include the family of Gul Rahman, who died because of torture. He was an Afghan refugee living in Pakistan with his wife and their four daughters, making a living selling wood to fellow residents of their refugee camp. While in Islamabad for a medical checkup in 2002, Rahman was abducted in a joint U.S.-Pakistani operation and rendered to a CIA 鈥渂lack site鈥� in Afghanistan. According to the Senate report, Rahman was tortured by a team of CIA interrogators that included Jessen and died in his cell. An autopsy and internal CIA review found the cause of death to be hypothermia caused 鈥渋n part by being forced to sit on the bare concrete floor without pants,鈥� with the contributing factors of 鈥渄ehydration, lack of food, and immobility due to 鈥榮hort chaining.鈥欌�� The family has never been officially notified of his death, and his body has never been returned to them for burial.

Another plaintiff is Suleiman Abdullah Salim, a fisherman from Tanzania. He had recently married a Somali woman and was doing business in Somalia when he was abducted by the CIA. He was then rendered to two of the agency鈥檚 black site prisons in Afghanistan, where he was held and tortured for over a year before being transferred to Bagram Air Force Base. The U.S. military released him over five years after his abduction with a letter acknowledging that he poses no threat to the United States. He now lives in Zanzibar with his wife and three-year-old daughter.

鈥淭he terrible torture I suffered at the hands of the CIA still haunts me. I still have flashbacks, but I鈥檝e learned to deal with them with a psychologist who tries to help people, not hurt them.鈥� said Salim. 鈥淭his lawsuit is about achieving justice. No person should ever have to endure the horrors that these two men inflicted.鈥�

The third plaintiff is Mohamed Ahmed Ben Soud. He fled his native Libya in 1991, fearing persecution for his opposition to Muammar Qaddafi鈥檚 dictatorship. In 2003, Ben Soud was captured in a joint U.S.-Pakistani raid on his home and sent to two secret CIA prisons in Afghanistan, where he was held and tortured for over two years. Ben Soud saw Mitchell in the first of these prisons, later identifying him as a man present in a room where CIA interrogators were torturing him by forcibly submerging him in ice water. In 2005, the CIA sent him to Libya, where he was tortured and sentenced to life imprisonment after a sham trial. Ben Soud was freed in 2011 after Gaddafi was deposed, and he now lives with his wife and three children.

In addition to torturing prisoners themselves, Mitchell and Jessen trained and supervised other CIA personnel in their methods. In 2005, they founded a company 鈥� Mitchell, Jessen & Associates 鈥� that the CIA contracted with to run its entire torture program, including supplying interrogators and security for black sites and rendition operations. According to the Senate report, the government paid the company $81 million over several years. The CIA let Mitchell and Jessen themselves evaluate the effectiveness of their torture in 鈥渂reaking鈥� detainees, and the agency has since admitted that this was a mistake.

Citing experiments conducted on dogs in the 1960s, Mitchell and Jessen proposed to the CIA a program based on the intentional infliction of intense pain and suffering, both physical and mental. In the 1960s鈥� experiments, dogs were subjected to random electric shocks, and they eventually collapsed into a passive state termed 鈥渓earned helplessness.鈥� According to Mitchell and Jessen鈥檚 theory, if humans were psychologically destroyed through torture and abuse, they would become totally unable to resist demands for information. Mitchell and Jessen invented different 鈥減hases鈥� of the torture process with the aim of breaking down prisoners into a state of 鈥渓earned helplessness鈥� in a systematized fashion.

鈥淭hese psychologists devised and supervised an experiment to degrade human beings and break their bodies and minds,鈥� said Dror Ladin, a staff attorney with the 老澳门开奖结果 National Security Project. 鈥淚t was cruel and unethical, and it violated a prohibition against human experimentation that has been in place since World War II.鈥�

The CIA adopted Mitchell and Jessen鈥檚 proposals, and in August of 2002, the agency secured Justice Department authorization in the so-called 鈥渢orture memos,鈥� which were later rescinded by the Justice Department.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Washington State, where Mitchell, Jessen & Associates was based and where Jessen still lives. The plaintiffs are suing Mitchell and Jessen under the Alien Tort Statute 鈥� which allows federal lawsuits for gross human rights violations 鈥� for their commission of torture; cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment; non-consensual human experimentation; and war crimes.

The attorneys on the case are Steven Watt, Dror Ladin, Hina Shamsi, and Jameel Jaffer of the 老澳门开奖结果 and La Rond Baker of the 老澳门开奖结果 of Washington.

Today鈥檚 complaint is at:
/legal-document/salim-v-mitchell-complaint

Videos, graphics, and more information are at:
/darkness

%3Ciframe%20allowfullscreen%3D%22%22%20src%3D%22https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2FRIGQR3apPkU%3Fautoplay%3D1%26autoplay%3D1%26version%3D3%22%20thumb%3D%22%2Ffiles%2Fweb15-dem-hererainfinishes-580x326.jpg%22%20frameborder%3D%220%22%20height%3D%22384%22%20width%3D%22580%22%3E%3C%2Fiframe%3E

Privacy statement. This embed will serve content from youtube.com.