Two psychologists who are allegedly responsible for having created the CIA's enhanced torture program are facing a lawsuit that has been launched by three victims of that torture program; filed by the ACLU.
The lawsuit, which has been in the works for several years, argues that the psychologists who are behind the making of the program, should be held financially liable for the psychological and physical effects that the victims had to endure.
A federal judge has just recently ordered that the case move to trial.
Two of the victims involved in the lawsuit are now free and back living in their own home countries, but the third victim allegedly died as a result of the torture.
The psychologists behind the creation of the program were allegedly paid between $75-81 million for their contract with the CIA.
Who Is Responsible?
What the victims are seeking is some accountability for the torture that took place. The psychologists who are credited with having created the program are James Mitchell and John Jessen.
According to the suit, the two men are accused of having taken part in designing the program, as well as promoting it, and sharing responsibility for its methods.
It's alleged that the victims had to undergo such torture as being locked in closed and claustrophobic boxes, being shackled in painful positions, being doused with water, and more. The third victim, who had been from Afghanistan, Gul Rahman, is said to have died from hypothermia after he was allegedly stripped of his clothing, doused with water, and then left shackled on a cold night to a concrete floor.
The family of Rahman is still waiting on confirmation as to what happened to their loved one. If the CIA is responsible for his death, they are still eager to know so that they can have closure.
It's expected that the two psychologists will stand trial in September of this year, against the accusations that they actively promoted torture methods like starvation and water-boarding. Not only that, but it's also argued that the two psychologists financially profited from the illegal torture that allegedly took place. The lawsuit will be heading to a jury trial and many hope that this will be the first time that there is some real accountability for the highly controversial and unlawful CIA torture program.
The psychologists, Mitchell and Jessen, have tried to argue that they were void of any responsibility for the CIA's activities and insist that the interrogations had nothing to do with them. It looks like they are hoping to pass the blame off onto the DOJ and the CIA. However, the court has thus far rejected their argument that they have no responsibility when it comes to the suffering of the victims who launched the suit.
Aside from many innocent men being swept-up in the highly inefficient war on terror and being subjected to this unjust torture, these unlawful methods also frequently failed to bring about any useful or valuable information. According to the Senate Intelligence Committee's report from several years ago, on the CIA's torture programs, they found that the torture failed to yield productive intelligence.
The trial is expected to begin September 5th and will take place in Spokane, Washington.
Pics:
Getty via www.ibtimes.co.uk/cia-torture-report-agency-paid-two-psychologists-80m-teach-brutal-methods-1478835
Giphy
Wikimedia Commons via commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eo-scale_of_justice.gif
Sources:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/most-guantanamo-detainees-are-innocent-ex-bush-official-1.804550
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/12/senate-report-blasts-cia-torture-methods.html
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/10/guantanamo-prisoner-september-11-trial-torture-testify
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/11/cia-torture-report-aftermath-daniel-jones-senate-investigation
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2017/aug/08/cia-torture-program-lawsuit-trial-enhanced-interrogation
http://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-the-cias-sadistic-dungeon
https://guardian.ng/news/cia-torture-psychologists-to-stand-trial/
http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2014/july/27/end-torture-shut-down-the-cia/
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