Doctors sued as torture detailed
Pair paid a fortune to develop CIA interrogation methods
CRUDE drawings have provided a shocking new insight into brutal torture the US Central Intelligence Agency inflicted on suspects in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
The images – hand-drawn by Libyan citizen Mohamed Ben Soud, who was interrogated inside a secret CIA prison for almost a year – depict the varied cruel torture techniques he was forced to endure.
The pictures have come to light as part of a potentially ground-breaking civil case in the US that is attempting to hold accountable the two psychologists responsible for developing the CIA’s brutal interrogation program.
Mr Ben Soud, Tanzanian fisherman Suleiman Abdullah Salim and the estate of Afghan citizen Gul Rahman, who died as a result of his torture, are suing doctors James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen for designing, implementing and profiting from their torture.
In a motion filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the men argue the doctors “aided and abetted the torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment that they suffered in the CIA interrogation program”.
ACLU lawyer Steven Watt said all other cases on the issue had been dismissed and this was the first time CIA officials would have to justify the program under oath.
Desperate to stop the next deadly terrorist attack on home soil, the CIA recruited the doctors in 2002 to come up with a new interrogation program that could squeeze information out of captives.
A scathing Senate report that was declassified in 2014 noted “neither psychologist had any experience as an interrogator, nor did either have specialised knowledge of al-Qaeda, a background in counter-terrorism, or any relevant cultural or linguistic expertise”.
On the CIA’s orders, the doctors created a notorious list of 10 “enhanced interrogation techniques”.
They included slamming detainees against a wall, placing them in a dark box for up to 18 hours, placing insects inside a box with the detainee, imposing stress positions for hours on end, sleep deprivation for up to 11 hours and waterboarding – where the detainee is strapped upside down to a board while the water is poured onto a cloth placed over his mouth and nose, simulating drowning.
The psychologists personally used these techniques on some of the CIA’s most significant detainees, according to the Senate report.
Three years later the doctors formed their own company to carry out their work with the CIA and received $US81 million before the contract was cancelled in 2009.
Mr Ben Soud was captured by the CIA because he was a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which aimed to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.
“His whole life was about freedom and liberty and democracy,” Mr Watt said.
Mr Watt promised that the eventual trial, to begin on September 5, would “shed incredible light on this very dark time in America’s history”.