12.12.2014 - 17:43 [ Techdirt ]

Profiting Massively From Torture: Designers Of CIA Torture Program Raked In $81 Million (And Are Still Getting Money)

The report uses pseudonyms for the two psychologists: Grayson Swigert and Hammond Dunbar. However, their names were actually revealed back in 2007: James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen. To say they were unqualified for the work of designing the torture program would be an understatement. While they were psychologists with the US Air Force‘s „Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape“ (SERE) program (which is supposed to help train US military personnel in case they‘re captured), you‘d think they‘d actually have some relevant background with terrorism and/or interrogation. But, nope:

„Neither psychologist had experience as an interrogator, nor did either have specialized knowledge of al- Qa‘ida, a background in terrorism, or any relevant regional, cultural, or linguistic expertise.“