Enhanced interrogation techniques

Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) hired two psychologists, James Mitchell and John Bruce Jessen, to develop enhanced interrogation techniques, or highly effective methods for gaining suspect and detainee compliance during terrorism investigations. The techniques were part of the CIA's enhanced interrogation program. Memos issued to the CIA by the US Department of Justice indicate that Mitchell and Jessen developed a total of thirteen known enhanced interrogation techniques, with waterboarding as the best-known example.

The CIA's enhanced interrogation program has proven highly controversial. Proponents claim it arms investigators with effective tools that save civilian lives and prevent terrorist attacks. Opponents claim that "enhanced interrogation" is little more than a euphemism for torture and that the CIA's program runs contrary to international human rights agreements that the United States has signed.

Background

On September 17, 2001, six days after major terrorist attacks struck the United States, President George W. Bush authorized the CIA to detain individuals suspected of involvement in terrorist organizations and terrorist activities. These prisoners were held at secret CIA facilities known as "black sites," where they were subjected to intensive interrogations.

As part of a wide-ranging crackdown on global terrorism, the Bush administration enlisted Mitchell and Jessen to develop a new set of techniques designed to break suspects' resistance during interrogation sessions. Mitchell and Jessen are former members of the US Air Force, and both hold doctorates in psychology. The two men set up a corporation, Mitchell Jessen and Associates, through which they entered into contracts with the CIA to develop enhanced interrogation techniques.

According to public records, the goal of the CIA's program extended beyond providing interrogators with new ways of extracting information from terrorism suspects. It sought to create overpowering, psychologically conditioned feelings of powerlessness and defenselessness. The program was designed to break any will suspects may have had to resist their interrogators. Mitchell later claimed in court proceedings that US government officials told him to "walk right up to the edge of the law" in developing the techniques used in enhanced interrogations.

Widely circulated media reports went on to state that Mitchell and Jessen were paid $81 million over a period of several years to develop, test, and refine a range of enhanced interrogation techniques. One of the techniques, known as waterboarding, was used on terrorism suspects during black site interrogations as early as August 2002. The existence of the CIA's enhanced interrogation program was first reported on November 2, 2005, by TheWashington Post. Within a week, the CIA had authorized the destruction of video recordings that depicted the use of waterboarding and other coercive interrogation methods. President Bush acknowledged the enhanced interrogation program's existence in September 2006. He used his veto power in March 2008 to stop legislation that would have limited the CIA's ability to use the techniques Mitchell and Jessen developed.

Overview

The thirteen known enhanced interrogation techniques that Mitchell and Jessen developed include the following:

• Abdominal slap: The interrogator slaps the detainee's stomach with the back of his or her hand while standing about 12 inches (30 centimeters) away. The technique is meant to arouse feelings of despair, fear, and humiliation.
• Attention grasp: Using both hands, the interrogator seizes the detainee's shirt collar and pulls him or her closer while demanding an answer to a question.
• Cramped confinement: Detainees are confined to a small box for an extended period. If the box allows enough room to stand, the detainee could be confined for up to eighteen hours. If the box requires the detainee to take a curled position, he or she could be confined for up to two hours.
• Dietary manipulation: Detainees are no longer offered solid foods and must instead subsist on a bland liquid diet.
• Facial hold: Using a firm hold, the interrogator places one hand on each side of the detainee's face to prevent him or her from moving his or her head.
• Facial slap: Also known as the "insult slap," this technique involves the use of an open-fingered slap, delivered to the detainee's face between the chin and ears, to remove any notion in the detainee's mind that he or she will not be subjected to physical force during the interrogation.
• Nudity: Enhanced interrogation techniques can be combined with nudity to increase the detainee's sense of helplessness and humiliation.
• Stress positions: Detainees are forced to assume seated or standing positions that introduce mild strain on the muscles. They are then required to hold the position for an extended period.
• Sleep deprivation: Often used in combination with stress positions, sleep deprivation techniques prevent detainees from falling asleep for periods of up to 180 hours. Numerous detainees reported experiencing hallucinations after being subjected to sleep deprivation.
• Wall standing: The detainee is forced to stand about 4 feet (1.2 meters) away from a wall and then lean forward and reach toward the wall until his or her fingers touch it. The interrogator then requires the detainee to hold this position for an indefinite period.
• Walling: The interrogator slams the detainee against a hard wall while demanding an answer to a question. This technique is then repeated until the detainee answers the question.
• Waterboarding: The detainee lays flat on a bench or board while water is poured over his or her face. Waterboarding simulates the experience of drowning, causing intense psychological stress.
• Water dousing: Detainees are forced to remove their clothes and then are immersed in a makeshift tub while cold water is poured on them. Alternately, detainees are forced to assume a stress position while nude, after which they are sprayed repeatedly with cold water.

Of these techniques, waterboarding is widely considered the most effective and the most brutal. In 2016, then CIA director John Brennan said the agency would never again use waterboarding on detainees, even under presidential orders. President Barack Obama canceled the CIA's authority to detain prisoners in January 2009 and signed an order requiring government-employed interrogators to limit themselves to the traditional techniques listed in the Army Field Manuals. However, Mitchell has since come forward with public claims that enhanced techniques undoubtedly saved civilian lives.

In 2014, the Senate select Committee on Intelligence released a report on the use of enhanced interrogation techniques. The first finding of the report asserted that enhanced interrogation techniques were not an effective means of gaining cooperation or information from the detainees. The reports also concluded that the conditions and techniques used were harsher than had originally been reported to the government and that the CIA attempted to avoid any oversight on the program and provided inaccurate information to other agencies. The report rejected many earlier claims about the usefulness and importance of enhanced interrogation techniques.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) later sued Mitchell and Jessen on behalf of three detainees who were subjected to waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation techniques. One of the detainees died in custody. Just before their case was scheduled to go to trial, the two psychologists reached an out-of-court settlement with the plaintiffs for an undisclosed sum in August 2017.

Bibliography

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Siems, Larry. "Creators of the CIA's 'Enhanced Interrogation' Program to Face Trial." Guardian, 8 Aug. 2017, www.theguardian.com/law/2017/aug/08/cia-torture-program-lawsuit-trial-enhanced-interrogation. Accessed 13 Jan. 2025.

"These Are the 13 'Enhanced Interrogation Techniques' the CIA Used on Detainees." Associated Press, 2014, www.businessinsider.com/the-13-enhanced-interrogation-techniques-the-cia-used-on-detainees-2014-12?IR=T. Accessed 13 Jan. 2025.