{"id":322150,"date":"2017-08-18T02:11:33","date_gmt":"2017-08-18T01:11:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/aclu-settles-torture-case-with-cia-contracted-psychologists\/"},"modified":"2017-08-18T02:11:33","modified_gmt":"2017-08-18T01:11:33","slug":"aclu-settles-torture-case-with-cia-contracted-psychologists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/aclu-settles-torture-case-with-cia-contracted-psychologists\/","title":{"rendered":"ACLU settles torture case with CIA-contracted psychologists"},"content":{"rendered":"

The ACLU has declared a \u201chistoric victory\u201d following the settlement of its lawsuit against two CIA-contracted psychologists involved in torturing suspects and developing the agency\u2019s \u2018enhanced interrogation program.’ The terms are confidential.<\/p>\n

\n

CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou told RT that while the settlement is historic, he is disappointed on three fronts.<\/p>\n

American Civil Liberties Union attorneys, acting on behalf of three plaintiffs who claimed they were tortured, said<\/a> it’s the first time the CIA, or its private contractors, had been held accountable for torturing suspects.<\/p>\n

\n

Read more<\/p>\n


\n \"FILE
\n <\/a>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThis outcome show that there are consequences for torture and that survivors can and will hold those responsible for torture accountable,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Dror Ladin, an ACLU attorney said, according to AP.\u00a0
\u201cIt is a clear warning for anything who thinks they can torture with impunity.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Kiriakou, a former CIA counter-terrorism officer who blew the whistle on the torture program in 2007, noted the historic victory\u00a0\u201cbecause nothing like this has ever happened before,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0but added,\u00a0\u201c<\/em>I am disappointed with a settlement.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

He said the American people will never know the details of what would have been released had the case gone to trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cDocuments would have certainly been de-classified, there would have been a number of people testifying in open court, and so we I think we will probably never know the real details of the CIA torture program. That\u2019s a disappointment,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0he told RT.<\/p>\n

Another disappointment is over the the sealed terms of agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am happy for the victims and the families of the victims of CIA torture, but I wish that we were able to say definitively that the final terms were enough of a deterrent to stop the CIA from possibly doing this again,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Kiriakou said.<\/p>\n

Kiriakou said his third disappointment was over the two psychologists \u2013James Mitchell and John Jessen \u2013 being indemnified at the time they signed their contract with the CIA.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo not one cent from this entire ordeal comes out of Mitchell and Jessen\u2019s pockets, leaving taxpayers footing this bill for this lawsuit, and that is very sad,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Kiriakou added.\u00a0\u201cEspecially as they made $81 million and they pay none of it to their own victims.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Kiriakou said he wished the case had gone to trial but was nevertheless surprised it had gone as far it did. A trial date was set for September 5 in federal court in Spokane, Washington. He said the CIA had ample opportunity to invoke\u00a0\u2018national security\u2019<\/em>\u00a0and ask for a dismissal but they elected not to do that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat order would have to have come from the White House, the Obama White House. When Donald Trump became president, he did not invoke \u2018national security\u2019 either, so it seems the CIA made an internal decision to just to get this thing behind them and be done with it,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0said Kiriakou.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think they were able to convince the Obama administration and the Trump administration that it was the right thing to do.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The ACLU filed the suit in 2015 on behalf of Suleiman Abdullah Salim, Mohamed Ahmed Ben Soud and the family of Gul Rahman under the Alien Tort Statute, which allows for federal lawsuits for gross human rights violations. Rahman froze to death in a secret CIA prison.<\/p>\n

The two men and Rahman’s family claimed the trio were tortured and experimented on using methods developed by the CIA-contracted psychologists, Mitchell and Jessen, following the terror attacks of 9\/11.<\/p>\n

During the interrogations, the plaintiffs claimed they were subject to waterboarding, slammed into walls, stuffed inside coffin-like boxes, exposed to extreme temperatures, starved, and kept awake for days, the ACLU argued.<\/p>\n

James Smith, the lead attorney for the psychologists said his clients were public servants whose interrogation of suspected terrorists was authorized by the government.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe facts would have borne out that while the plaintiffs suffered mistreatment by some of their captors, none of that mistreatment was conducted, condoned or caused by Drs. Mitchell and Jessen,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Smith stated, according to AP.<\/p>\n

AP reported that as the two psychologists worked as government contractors, their legal bills will be covered by US taxpayer money.<\/p>\n

The Justice Department got involved in the case to represent the government\u2019s interest in keeping classified information secret but did not try to block the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

As part of the settlement agreement, both sides\u00a0agreed<\/a>\u00a0to release a joint statement in which Doctors Mitchell and Jessen acknowledged they worked with the CIA\u00a0\u201cto develop a program for the CIA that contemplated the use of specific coercive methods to interrogate certain detainees.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The parties acknowledged that Rahman\u00a0\u201cwas subjected to abuses in the CIA program that resulted in his death\u201d<\/em>\u00a0and plaintiffs Suleiman Abdullah Salim and Mohamed Ahmed Ben Soud were\u00a0\u201calso subjected to coercive methods in the CIA program, which resulted in pain and suffering.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The ACLU said it had based its legal claims on the declassified facts in the executive summary of the Senate report on CIA torture. The ACLU claimed that in addition to torturing prisoners themselves, Mitchell and Jessen trained other CIA personnel in their methods. The pair founded a company in 2005 that the CIA contracted to run its entire torture program, including supplying interrogators for the agency\u2019s secret\u00a0\u201cblack site\u201d<\/em>\u00a0prisons. The government paid the company $81 million over several years.<\/p>\n

A US Senate investigation in 2014 found that the techniques developed by the two psychologists produced no useful intelligence. President Obama terminated the contract in 2009.<\/p>\n