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One of the psychologists paid tens of millions of dollars by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency to oversee the interrogation of prisoners in the so-called War on Terror provided new details on Monday about the torture of a Guantanamo Bay detainee at CIA "black site" in Thailand.
"Imagine the hell Mr. Nashiri experienced outside of that box that made him prefer being inside it."
The New York Timesreports James E. Mitchell told a military judge during a pretrial hearing at Guantanamo that Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri--a Saudi national facing possible execution for allegedly masterminding the deadly 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen--broke quickly under torture and became so obedient that he would crawl into a cramped confinement box before guards ordered him to do so.
Initially, guards had to force al-Nashiri into the box. But according to Mitchell, the prisoner "liked being in the box" and would "get in and close it himself."
Annie W. Morgan, a former Air Force defense attorney who is a member of al-Nashiri's legal team, told the Times that when she heard Mitchell's testimony, "I got the image of crate-training a dog and became nauseous."
"That was the goal of the program, to create a sense of learned helplessness and to become completely dependent upon and submissive to his captors," she added, referencing a tactic taught in U.S. torture programs and documents dating back to the 1950s.
Gail Helt, a former CIA analyst who advocates Guantanamo's closure, tweeted, "Imagine the hell Mr. Nashiri experienced outside of that box that made him prefer being inside it."
\u201cAll of these guys belong in prison: Mitchell described his treatment of the defendant -- to condition him to answer questions in interrogation -- as having been strictly monitored by C.I.A. doctors and authorized by Justice Department lawyers. https://t.co/WcIKbl8Yud\u201d— Hussein Ibish (@Hussein Ibish) 1651664867
Al-Nashiri's attorneys--who argue that evidence in the case is tainted by torture--questioned Mitchell about what happened at the Thailand black site in November 2002, when former CIA Director Gina Haspel oversaw the secret prison.
The psychologist's testimony is meant to shed light on abuse that may have been recorded on scores of videotapes documenting detainee torture that were later destroyed at the behest of then-CIA counterterrorism chief Jose Rodriguez, who claimed in his memoir that Haspel drafted the 2005 cable ordering the move.
Mitchell--who along with fellow psychologist John "Bruce" Jessen was paid $81 million by the CIA to develop and supervise an interrogation regimen for terrorism suspects--described how the diminutive al-Nashiri was so scrawny that guards stopped subjecting him to the interrupted drowning torture commonly called waterboarding for fear the prisoner might be seriously hurt.
In addition to waterboarding and other approved torture techniques, a declassified 2014 U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee report revealed how interrogators threatened to sexually assault al-Nashiri's mother, and how he was terrorized with a power drill and raped with a garden hose in a practice known as rectal hydration that was administered to Guantanamo prisoners who refused to eat or drink.
\u201cAn image drawn by Abu Zubaydah, a prisoner at Guant\u00e1namo Bay, shows how the C.I.A. applied an approved torture technique called \u201ccramped confinement.\u201d NYTimes caption\u2026 \nthat\u2019s right: *an approved torture technique*\nhttps://t.co/TatFheWpzP\u201d— Philip Gourevitch (@Philip Gourevitch) 1575513356
Mitchell told the court that:
The Times previously reported:
Interrogators continually told Mr. Nashiri they did not believe he was telling everything he knew, threatening him with worse treatment if he did not tell them more. The prisoner, already subjected to the whole array of C.I.A. torture techniques--loud noise, sleep deprivation, forced nudity, wall-slamming, and waterboarding--insisted he was trying to remember and tell them everything.
But the interrogators appear to have ultimately concluded that Mr. Nashiri was not lying. Some of the cables back to headquarters, apparently written by Ms. Haspel, described him as "compliant and cooperative," according to the 2014 report on the interrogation program by the Senate Intelligence Committee.
In addition to the black site in Thailand, al-Nashiri--who was captured in Dubai in October 2002--was imprisoned at CIA black sites in Afghanistan, Poland, Romania, and possibly Morocco before being sent to Guantanamo in September 2006.
In 2010 he was granted victim status by the Polish government, whose cooperation with and complicity in the George W. Bush administration's extraordinary rendition and torture program was later revealed and investigated.
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In March, human rights advocates condemned the U.S. Supreme Court's decision allowing the Biden administration to block Mitchell and Jessen from cooperating with Polish prosecutors investigating the torture of Saudi terror suspect Abu Zubaydah.
The Bush administration officials who devised, approved, and implemented the post-9/11 torture regimen have enjoyed total impunity. Not only did Bush's successor, former President Barack Obama, break a campaign promise to investigate and prosecute abuses as required by U.S. and international law, his Justice Department actively shielded them from accountability as torture continued at Guantanamo.
The Biden administration should avoid perpetuating the culture of impunity at the apex of U.S. leadership that undoubtedly emboldened President Donald Trump to commit human rights crimes both at home and abroad, argues one Guantanamo Bay defense attorney in an op-ed published Thursday by Business Insider.
"Take it from someone who knows the corrosive effect of impunity. I represent tortured detainees at Guantanamo Bay, where the US government has perpetrated human rights violations shrouded from public view for nearly 19 years."
--Alka Pradhan, Guantanamo defense lawyer
Alka Pradhan, human rights counsel at the Military Commissions Defense Organization at Guantanamo Bay, writes that failure to hold government officials accountable for their criminal policies and actions seriously harms U.S. national security and foreign relations.
For example, writes Pradhan, "during the Bush administration, our use of torture wrecked our national security by weakening international alliances, degrading military operations, and even contributing to troop deaths (pdf)."
"When he took office in 2009, [Former President Barack] Obama almost immediately declared he was ending the United States' torture program," she notes. "Yet the Obama administration refused to hold anyone from the Bush administration accountable, insisting that 'we're going to look forward, not backward.'"
Not only did Obama break a campaign promise by failing to prosecute any of the Bush administration officials who planned, authorized, and implemented the global CIA and military torture regime, his administration actively shielded them from ever having to face justice for their crimes. Obama's refusal to prosecute officials he knew committed torture-related crimes is itself a war crime under the Convention Against Torture.
While none of the Bush torturers ever faced the "reckoning" Obama promised, his administration did prosecute and imprison whistleblowers John Kiriakou and Chelsea Manning for revealing U.S. torture. As Pradhan notes:
Gina Haspel, who destroyed torture evidence at one of the CIA's black sites, is now director of the CIA. Steven Bybee, who authored Justice Department memoranda permitting the use of torture on detainees, is now a 9th Circuit judge who ruled in favor of government immunity for torture. John Yoo, who infamously championed the president's absolute power to crush the genitals of a child and now teaches at Berkeley Law, recently reappeared to apply his theory of absolute power to President Trump.
All of this, asserts Pradhan, has exacerbated a climate of impunity in which "the Trump administration has flouted the law on a nearly daily basis." She writes:
The administration has created detention camps on the border, initiated illegal family separations that may never be rectified, and allowed police officers to kill Black Americans without consequence or censure. Most recently, the president created a false narrative regarding the election that led to threats of violence against elected officials.
"While these most recent events are shocking, they are also the direct consequences of the lack of government accountability committed under the guise of 'national security' that has been running rampant for decades," writes Pradhan.
While Pradhan does not mention specific examples here, President Gerald Ford's 1974 pardoning of his immediate predecessor, the Watergate criminal and former President Richard Nixon, as well as former President George H.W. Bush's pardons of several convicted Iran-Contra felons, illustrate her point.
"When a 'nation of laws' refuses to apply those laws to people in power, the law dissolves into a matter of opinion... Nearly 20 years after 9/11, half the country still approvesof torture--one of the most serious international crimes."
--Pradhan
Pradhan says the incoming Biden administration "will have a chance to account for past and present crimes and they need to take it. That means a long and detailed look backwards at how America has evaded responsibility in the name of 'national security.'"
However, Biden has given no indication that he intends to hold Trump or any members of his administration accountable for their crimes and other misdeeds. To the contrary--and in strikingly similar language to Obama and Ford--Biden transition team insiders recently claimed that the president-elect has said that he "just wants to move on." And as Pradhan notes, "Biden is even considering the nomination of Mike Morell, a torture apologist, to the CIA."
"It seems that the country has learned no lessons," she laments.
"Take it from someone who knows the corrosive effect of impunity," writes Pradhan. "I represent tortured detainees at Guantanamo Bay, where the U.S. government has perpetrated human rights violations shrouded from public view for nearly 19 years."
Pradhan warns:
When a "nation of laws" refuses to apply those laws to people in power, the law dissolves into a matter of opinion. Our leaders try to avoid assigning accountability so assiduously that they twist themselves into knots trying to create suitable euphemisms for heinous acts. That's how we got "enhanced interrogation" instead of torture; "racially tinged" instead of "racist"; and "border security" out of illegally separating families and traumatizing their children...
Nearly 20 years after 9/11, half the country still approves of torture--one of the most serious international crimes. The illegal indefinite detention of brown-skinned men at Guantanamo Bay barely elicits a shrug from most members of Congress, despite the continued condemnation of our allies. This culture of impunity has never been so dangerous.
"The only way to demonstrate that America believes in the rule of law, and to achieve eventual unity, is to hold people accountable," concludes Pradhan, "whether by investigations, truth commissions, or prosecutions. Otherwise, a 'more perfect union' will forever be out of reach."
Peace activists on Monday sounded the alarm over President-elect Joe Biden's pick for director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, citing her role in drone strike policy during Barack Obama's presidency and covering up torture perpetrated by members of the George W. Bush administration.
Haines, as former deputy national security adviser and former deputy CIA director, worked closely with Obama and former CIA Director John Brennan as the administration dramatically increased drone strikes.
"Appointing a woman to be the director of national intelligence DOES NOT justify, atone or excuse the US intelligence community's murderous drone strikes and violent counterterrorism strategies."
--CodePink
CIA Director Gina Haspel, as the New York Timesnoted, will report to Haines. Haspel had a role supervising the CIA's torture program, and Haines supported President Donald Trump's nomination of the agency chief in 2018.
As the Daily Beastreported in July, Haines approved an "accountability board" that spared CIA personnel reprisal for spying on the Senate's torture investigators, and was part of the team that redacted their landmark report. After the administration ended, Haines supported Gina Haspel for CIA director, someone directly implicated in CIA torture, a decision that remains raw amongst progressive activists. Until late June, she consulted for the Trump-favorite data firm Palantir, which emerged from the CIA.
Haines' nomination drew praise from Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who said he was "incredibly pleased" by the pick, adding it sends "a clear message of hope and support for American values to the world in choosing candidates who possess the qualifications, the demeanor, and the temperament to serve in leadership positions."
Other centist Democrats expressed similar sentiments:
\u201cGovernment should represent the people it serves.\n\nI\u2019m excited the Biden-Harris admin is building an experienced team by nominating Alejandro Mayorkas as the first Latino DHS Sec., Avril Haines as the first female intelligence chief, & Linda Thomas-Greenfield as UN Ambassador.\u201d— Rep. Suzan DelBene (@Rep. Suzan DelBene) 1606161162
\u201cCongratulations to Avril Haines on her nomination for Director of National Intelligence! Haines is the experienced, crisis-tested leader we need leading the intelligence community. https://t.co/cbMsq1z9C4\u201d— Abigail Spanberger (@Abigail Spanberger) 1606163722
Politicians, press, and pundits took to Twitter to say that Haines is a really nice person:
Peace and digital rights advocates--Haines also worked as a consultant for the surveillance state- and deportation-enabling tech firm Palantir Technologies--had a decidedly different take on her selection. Under the hashtag #FeminismNotMilitarism, the women-led peace group CodePink tweeted that "appointing a woman to be the director of national intelligence DOES NOT justify, atone, or excuse the U.S. intelligence community's murderous drone strikes and violent counterterrorism strategies."
In a Common Dreamsop-ed earlier this month, CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin and co-author Nicolas C. Davies noted that "Haines provided legal cover and worked closely with Obama and CIA Director John Brennan on Obama's tenfold expansion of drone killings."
Benjamin and Davies wrote that Haines taking a prominent position in the Biden administration would be just one more troubling failure to reorient U.S. foreign policy away from past mistakes.
\u201cAppointing a woman to be the director of national intelligence DOES NOT justify, atone or excuse the US intelligence community's murderous drone strikes and violent counterterrorism strategies. #FeminismNotMilitarism\nhttps://t.co/wX0euHl7t9\u201d— CODEPINK (@CODEPINK) 1606155459
\u201cUncle Joe\u2019s inbound nieces and nephews recall Aesop's fabled: \u201cYou are judged by the company you keep\u201d (Vol.1):\nMeet Avril Haines: Nat. Security team / CIA-DNI prospect\nSigned letter backing Trump's nom of torture-complicit Gina Haspel at CIA-along with: \nhttps://t.co/OJo6qzs4vF\u201d— Danny Sjursen (@Danny Sjursen) 1605457656
\u201cAvril Haines gave full-throated support for Trump's nomination of torture-queen Gina Haspel to head the CIA. https://t.co/isar8KXgg4\u201d— Dan Cohen (@Dan Cohen) 1606153582
\u201cAvril Haines as Director of National Intelligence is not good. She was one of the authors of Obama's "presidential policy guidance," the infamous drone playbook that made targeted killings all over the world a normal part of US policy.\u201d— Sarah Lazare (@Sarah Lazare) 1606152474
\u201cWho among us would love to learn more about Avril Haines\u2019 work with Palantir \ud83d\ude4b\ud83c\udffc\u200d\u2640\ufe0f https://t.co/G3fc2IzlEC\u201d— Allie Funk (@Allie Funk) 1606153260
Haines joins a growing list of controversial names either already chosen or under consideration for jobs in the Biden administration, including his highest-ranking Cabinet pick to date, secretary of state nominee and Iraq and Libya invasion supporter Anthony Blinken. Both Haines and Blinken worked for WestExec Advisors, a key player in the revolving door world between government and the corporate sector whose founders include Blinken and former Clinton and Obama hawk Michele Flournoy--who is widely considered the front-runner to become the first woman defense secretary.
Writing at the Guardian Saturday, Arwa Mahdawi cautioned against "acting like Flournoy's likely appointment as head of the Pentagon is some kind of win for feminism."
"There is nothing remotely feminist about women in rich countries dropping bombs on women in poor countries," wrote Mahdawi.