CIA Used Prisoner As 'Training Prop' For Torture, Psychologist Testifies

[left-of-center2012]

A man accused of helping finance the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks was subjected to "excessive" abuse at the hands of CIA interrogators who used him as a training tool for employees learning the agency's torture techniques.

That's according to testimony Thursday from a psychologist who helped design the torture program. James Mitchell, who co-owned a company that was paid $80 million by the U.S. government to develop what the CIA called "enhanced interrogation techniques," said the prisoner, Ammar al-Baluchi, became an instructional aide for student interrogators.

Al-Baluchi, the 42-year-old nephew of alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, is facing criminal charges in the terror attacks.

During a May 2003 interrogation at a secret overseas CIA prison in Afghanistan known as a "black site," al-Baluchi was slammed into a wall, doused with water and slapped multiple times in the face and stomach, according to an unclassified CIA document presented in court. He was also put in stress positions — forced to lean at an angle against a wall using only his forehead and also to kneel backwards to an extreme degree — for nearly an hour.

Before his interrogation, al-Baluchi was kept in a "standing sleep deprivation position" for about a day, and afterward he was returned to his cell naked and again placed in a standing sleep deprivation position, where he remained until his next interrogation the following day, the document shows. He was also denied solid food and given a cold-water bath afterward.

https://www.npr.org/2020/01/23/799130233/psychologist-who-helped-create-interrogation-methods-says-cia-may-have-gone-too

[marble falls]

1. I keep forgetting who the terrorists are.

[CrispyQ]

2. +1

I have no words.

[YOHABLO]

3. This was all on the Bush administration. We did nothing

to account for these heinous acts of torture.

[stillcool]

5. the victims should be able..

to sue the U.S. Government. There sure are enough of them, maybe give them a state.

[PatSeg]

4. In the Trump era,

we often forget how bad it was during the Bush years. The lack of accountability is horrifying. What kind of sick minds think this kind of interrogation is acceptable? And how can they not call it torture?

[Wellstone ruled]

6. Wants some interesting reading on background

google Mitchell-Jessen and follow the links. These two suckers are really bad news. Especially Jessen,Ward Bishop LDS Church .

Not friggin surprising.

[Hortensis]

7. 9/11, occurring when Republicans controlled both houses

of congress and the WH: From what I've read, that was a huge turning point when the CIA finally and actually became what many had always assumed it was. Murder, torture, lawless imprisonment, and many other lawless and unconscionable acts, all as SOP.

No coincidence that at the same time ethical Republicans had finally almost all been purged from national office and replaced with the kind we're watching right now. "Just following orders" from dangerously lawless, ruthless, and unprincipled leaders.