Torture case settles

Deal meant to put end to brutal US interrogation tactics

A SETTLEMENT in a landmark lawsuit against two psychologists who helped design the CIA’s harsh interrogation methods used in the war on terror marked the first time the agency or its private contractors have been held accountable for the program, legal experts said yesterday.

The deal in the lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union also makes it unlikely the CIA will again pursue the tactics, which included beat- ings and waterboarding, said Deborah Pearlstein, professor at the Cardozo Law School in New York.

“This sends a signal to those who might consider doing this in the future,” Ms Pearlstein said. “This puts an exclamation mark at the end of ‘don’t torture’.”

Terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but it avoided a civil trial set for September 5 in federal court in Spokane, Washington.

The ACLU sued psychologists James Mitchell and John “Bruce” Jessen on behalf of three former detainees, including one who died in custody, who contended they were tortured at secret CIA prisons overseas.

Mitchell and Jessen were under contract with the federal government following the September 11 terror attacks.

The lawsuit claimed they designed, implemented and personally administered an ex- perimental torture program. The techniques they developed included waterboarding, slamming the three men into walls, stuffing them inside coffin-like boxes, exposing them to extreme temperatures, starving them and keeping them awake for days, the ACLU said.

James T. Smith, lead defence lawyer, said the psychologists were public servants whose interrogation methods were authorised by the govern- ment. Jessen said in a statement he and Mitchell “served our country at a time when freedom and safety hung in the balance”.

The lawsuit sought unspecified monetary damages from the psychologists.

A US Senate investigation in 2014 found that Mitchell and Jessen’s techniques produced no useful intelligence. They were paid $81 million. President Barack Obama terminated the contract in 2009.