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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Second CIA contractor testifies in 9/11 case at Guantanamo

Dr. Bruce Jessen, a senior military psychologist with offices in Spokane, had a key role in expanding the controversial use of torture against enemy combatants.   Photo taken 2007.
By Ben Fox Associated Press

FORT MEADE, Md. – A former CIA contractor who helped design the agency’s harsh interrogation program following the Sept. 11 attacks pushed back Friday on the notion that the survival training for U.S. service members, which became the basis for the “enhanced” techniques used on American captives, amounted to torture.

John Bruce Jessen, a former Air Force psychologist with offices in Spokane, said the survival training provided to American pilots and other members of the military was intended to help them recover more quickly if they were subjected to brutal treatment when captured.

“The U.S. government wouldn’t torture their own people,” he said. The techniques “were designed to teach students they could handle tough times.“

Jessen was called as a witness by lawyers for the Guantanamo prisoners facing war crimes charges for their alleged roles in the Sept. 11 plot. His early testimony focused on the roots of what Bush administration officials called “enhanced interrogation” and many critics call torture.

It’s an important issue now as lawyers for the five men charged in the attacks seek to exclude a key piece of evidence against them: statements they gave voluntarily to FBI agents after they were moved from CIA custody to Guantanamo in September 2006. Their death penalty trial is scheduled to start at the base next January.

Jessen took the stand after his partner, fellow former contractor James Mitchell, testified over eight days, providing the first public details about a CIA interrogation program that has long been shrouded in secrecy.

As he took the stand Friday morning, Jessen made it clear that his participation was limited. “My position is that I’ll come for two weeks and that is all and then I’m done,” he said soon after taking the stand. “I hope you’ll remember that.”

A retired psychologist who lives in Washington state, Jessen created the interrogation program with Mitchell based on the experience both men had training Air Force pilots to put up resistance to the enemy if captured. Their company received $81 million from the CIA, according to a 2014 Senate report on the program.

Mitchell earlier defended the interrogation program, though he conceded that some interrogators used unapproved methods or that some techniques were used even when not necessary because detainees were cooperating.

The methods they developed included sleep deprivation for days at a time, confinement in small spaces, painful shackling, forced standing in the nude, being plunged into icy water and the simulated drowning known as waterboarding,

Mitchell insisted the overall goal of the program was to prevent another terrorist attack. “I felt my moral obligation to protect American lives outweighed the temporary discomfort of terrorists who voluntarily took up arms against us,” he said.

Air Force Col. Shane Cohen, the judge, said he will ultimately decide how to characterize the treatment the men were subjected to in various clandestine CIA detention facilities before they were taken to Guantanamo in September 2006. They are now among the 40 prisoners still held at the base.

“The opinion of the Department of Justice, the attorney general, or even the president of the United States is not binding on me,“ Cohen said during Mitchell’s testimony.

His decision could have a significant effect on what evidence the government can present in a case that has stalled in pretrial hearings since the May 2012 arraignment of the defendants, who include Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, who has portrayed himself as the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The proceedings at Guantanamo were being transmitted to several government installations in the U.S., including Fort Meade, Maryland, where they were viewed by the Associated Press.