VF Exposes Torture Trainers, New Torture Memo

In the latest in a chain of important exposes revealing the use of SERE to train American torturers, Vanity Fair's Katherine Eban has unearthed even more info about CIA torture trainers James Elmer Mitchell and colleague Bruce Jessen. These men are currently under investigation by the Senate Armed Services Committee for their role in reverse engineering SERE tortures like waterboarding, sensory deprivation and sexual humiliation for use in the GWOT. The article dishes up crucial tidbits like this:

In late 2005, as Senator John McCain was pressing the Bush administration to ban torture techniques, one of the nation's top researchers of stress in SERE trainees claims to have received a call from Samantha Ravitch, the deputy assistant for national security in Vice President Dick Cheney's office. She wanted to know if the researcher had found any evidence that uncontrollable stress would make people more likely to talk.

Further, the piece reveals the contents of a December 2002 "JTF GTMO 'SERE' Interrogation Standard Operating Procedure" memo. A declassified discussion about this document is featured in my book and is available here, but the contents, until now, have been a mystery. According to Eban:

The document, which has never before been made public, states, "The premise behind this is that the interrogation tactics used at US military sere schools are appropriate for use in real-world interrogations" and "can be used to break real detainees."

The document is divided into four categories: "Degradation," "Physical Debilitation," "Isolation and Monopoliztion [sic] of Perception," and "Demonstrated Omnipotence." The tactics include "slaps," "forceful removal of detainees' clothing," "stress positions," "hooding," "manhandling," and "walling," which entails grabbing the detainee by his shirt and hoisting him against a specially constructed wall.

"Note that all tactics are strictly non-lethal," the memo states, adding, "it is critical that interrogators do 'cross the line' when utilizing the tactics." The word "not" was presumably omitted by accident.

[...]

It dictates that the "[insult] slap will be initiated no more than 12–14 inches (or one shoulder width) from the detainee's face … to preclude any tendency to wind up or uppercut." And interrogators are advised that, when stripping off a prisoner's clothes, "tearing motions shall be downward to prevent pulling the detainee off balance." In short, the SERE-inspired interrogations would be violent. And therefore, psychologists were needed to help make these more dangerous interrogations safer.

The VF article is truly fascinating, plus its timing is just right. Next month, the American Psychological Association (APA) will hold its annual conference in San Francisco, where Psychologists for an Ethical APA will be staging a protest against current APA pro-torture policies. This article should add more flames to an already raging fire.

--------

Official Responses to Vanity Fair SERE Story:

Psychologists for an Ethical APA

Physicians for Human Rights