The Real Story Behind the CIA's Torture Policy

Has Brennan been pushing Obama to keep the history of the Bush program under wraps? Does he have any personal exposure that figures in this decision?

According to Newsweek, Brennan opposed the recent release of several shocking Justice Department memos authorizing “enhanced interrogation techniques,” and he helped mobilize Panetta against releasing the documents to the public, too. Much of the fight over these documents centered on damaging details such as the fact that the CIA waterboarded one prisoner 183 times. Obama overrode the concerns of advisers and released the documents anyway, partly on the grounds that the torture program was no longer operational, since he had banned it, so none of the secrets involved protecting ongoing programs.

As for Brennan’s exposure—these are the sorts of questions that remain unanswered so long as there is not more information. But he was a very senior CIA official at the time that the authorized abuse was at its worst, and he was so close to then Director George Tenet, who greenlighted the program, a source in this story described them as “joined at the hip.” According to Brennan’s own account, he was in meetings where the interrogation and detention program was discussed. So any serious inquiry would inevitably include a review of his role.

Vice President Cheney has insisted that the White House’s role was essentially giving the go ahead to intelligence operatives who sought to use rougher techniques. The mounting evidentiary case points just in the opposite direction—to figures in the White House pushing for use of harsh techniques. Did you get any insight into this question in your last set of interviews?

Panetta says he has no doubt that the White House led the way, pushing the CIA into hurting prisoners. But John Helgerson, the former Inspector General of the CIA until last month, told me that he thinks the White House, Pentagon, and CIA were all equally responsible. As he put it, “They went into it arm and arm.”

You broke most of the story of the role of psychologists James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen in the development and initial implementation of the Bush interrogation program. The CIA seems to have gone to unusual lengths to shield them and their ties to other prominent psychologists, like former American Psychological Association president Joseph Matarazzo. Are they still working on interrogation issues at taxpayers' expense?

To my amazement, I was told that the CIA renewed its rich contract with James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen in February 2009—in other words, after Obama took office. What is so astounding about this is that these two former military psychologists have been described to me and others as the original designers of the torture techniques. They were there at the creation when waterboarding was used 183 times on Abu Zubaydah. Waterboarding, according to Attorney General Eric Holder, is torture. Torture is a felony, sometimes treated as a capital crime. Yet despite all of this, the CIA renewed their contract this year. The only thing that finally cut their revenue stream off was the passage of a new law curbing the CIA from using contractors in interrogations. This past spring, after that law passed, Leon Panetta fired their firm. But it seems that for seven years they have been on the public dole. If the CIA had any qualms about using the cruel techniques these two contractors designed, it certainly wasn’t reflected by February 2009.

Scott Horton is a law professor and writer on legal and national security affairs for Harper's Magazine and The American Lawyer, among other publications.