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Millionaire CIA Torture Psychologists to Face Trial

posted by martyb on Sunday July 30 2017, @11:28PM   
from the Rosenhan-Milgram-Dunning-Kruger-research dept.

cafebabe writes:

From Wikileaks (via Vinay Gupta):

Judge rules two psychologists, Mitchell and Jessen, who made millions as consultants for the CIA's torture program can face trial.

How do you get into the business of being a torture consultant? Good question because when they started:

Neither man had ever carried out a real interrogation, had language skills or expertise on al Qaeda - the chief enemy in the war on terror - when the CIA handpicked Mitchell and Jessen to spearhead its supposed intelligence gathering program shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Their psychology backgrounds were in family therapy; their Ph.D. dissertations were on high blood pressure.

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Original Submission

• Re:Fuck em Re:Fuck em (Score: 2) by bradley13 on Monday July 31 2017, @05:49AM (2 children)

  by bradley13 (3053) on Monday July 31 2017, @05:49AM (#546995) Homepage Journal

  one of the things everyone knows about torture is that it is useless for getting the truth out of people

  This. In fact, getting a "confession" out of someone tend to prove their innocence. Because someone with real colleagues and information to protect is likely to hold out longer.

  I've read articles claiming that torture can be useful, when used to acquire specific facts that can be checked. For example: "where is the ticking bomb?" However, that is a very unusual scenario, and there is little evidence that the CIA got any useful intelligence out of this.

  Really, one of the most embarrassing episode in American history. Instead of taking the moral high ground, American sought to prove that it could act even more depraved than the terrorists. Plus Abu Ghraib. Plus Guantanamo. Plus whatever secret events that never came to light.

  Shameful, and yet: no one from the government is in jail.

  --
  Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.

  Parent

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• Re:Fuck em (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 31 2017, @04:59PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 31 2017, @04:59PM (#547247)

  Most of us were quite angry about this, but seeing as we don't actually live in a free country there is nothing we could do. There were a lot of reasons to put this prison in another country, one big part of that is they didn't want protesters to line up outside and draw lots of attention to their activities.

  The fact that no one went to prison, except probably for these two patsies, is a clear indicator that the US is not a democracy in any but the most superficial ways. The people have power, but it is so distributed and scattered into political pockets that it is near impossible to get unified action.

  Blergh, I hope humanity steps back from the edge soon, this dystopia crap is becoming depressing.

  Parent

• Re:Fuck em (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 31 2017, @06:44PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 31 2017, @06:44PM (#547290)

  This. In fact, getting a "confession" out of someone tend to prove their innocence. Because someone with real colleagues and information to protect is likely to hold out longer.

  From the Malleus Maleficarum:

  There seems to be some advantage in pursuing the first of these courses on account of the benefit which may accrue from it to those who are bewitched; yet it is not lawful to use witchcraft to cure witchcraft, although (as was shown in the First and Introductory Question to this Third Part) the general opinion is that it is lawful to use vain and superstitious means to remove a spell. But use and experience and the variety of such cases will be of more value to Judges than any art or text-book; therefore this is a matter which should be left to the Judges. But it has certainly been very often found by experience that many would confess the truth if they were not held back by the fear of death.
                  But if neither threats nor such promises will induce her to confess the truth, then the officers must proceed with the sentence, and she must by examined, not in any new or exquisite manner, but in the usual way, lightly or heavily according as the nature of her crimes demands. And while she is being questioned about each several point, let her be often and frequently exposed to torture, beginning with the more gentle of them; for the Judge should not be too hasty to proceed to the graver kind. And while this is being done, let the Notary write all down, how she is tortured and what questions are asked and how she answers.
                  And note that, if she confesses under torture, she should then be taken to another place and questioned anew, so that she does not confess only under the stress of torture.
                  The next step of the Judge should be that, if after being fittingly tortured she refuses to confess the truth, he should have other engines of torture brought before her, and tell her that she will have to endure these if she does not confess. If then she is not induced by terror to confess, the torture must be continued on the second or third day, but not repeated at that present time unless there should be some fresh indication of its probable success.

  http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/mm/mm03_14a.htm [sacred-texts.com]

  "We found a Terrorist Witch! May we burn her?"

  Parent