TORMENT

CIA ‘Torture’ Architects Had Reservations, but Methods ‘Worked’

In newly obtained depositions of psychologists in federal lawsuit.

In a newly disclosed deposition, the psychologists who designed brutal interrogation techniques used by the CIA on terrorism suspects say they were at times unsure about the morality of the George W. Bush-era program but ultimately believed it to be effective. John Bruce Jessen and James Mitchell are known by CIA officials as the architects of the program, but both have disputed that designation. “I think any normal, conscionable man would have to consider carefully doing something like this,” Jessen said in the video deposition. “I deliberated with great, soulful torment about this, and obviously I concluded that it could be done safely or I wouldn’t have done it.” Jessen and Mitchell are defendants in a federal lawsuit filed in Spokane, Washington, by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of former prisoners, in order to hold participants accountable for inflicting the techniques.