SPOKANE, Wash. — A man detained in Guantanamo Bay since 2006 is suing two former Spokane psychologists for what he says was his prolonged torture as part of an "experimental" interrogation program the two developed for the CIA.
Attorneys for Abu Zubaydah, reportedly the first Al Qaeda prisoner to be waterboarded under these "enhanced interrogation techniques," filed the lawsuit Monday in Spokane's federal court.
The lawsuit claims psychologists James Mitchell and John "Bruce" Jessen tortured Zubaydah for years beginning in April 2002 as contractors for the CIA.
"Zubaydah was the first victim subjected to Mitchell and Jessen’s program of torture. Captured in March 2002, he was erroneously believed to be the number three leader in Al-Qaeda and was transported to a black site in Thailand," the complaint stated.
The lawsuit claims Mitchell and Jessen misled U.S. government officials about the so-called “enhanced interrogation” program they designed, and often administered themselves, including how severe the treatment would be.
Those techniques included endured solitary confinement, stress positions, confinement in coffin-like boxes, and waterboarding.
The complaint states after his capture in Pakistan, attorneys say Zubaydah provided all reliable info he had to FBI interrogators. The CIA confirmed it was reliable, the complaint states, and "the planned attack was successfully thwarted."
By the next month, his attorneys write, Zubaydah was transferred to a CIA 'black site' and Mitchell and Jessen's interrogations began. The complaint details his treatment, which included sleep deprivation, forced nudity, and keeping Zubaydah shackled to a chair.
The complaint states Mitchell and Jensen were unable to get any more info from these tactics, but accused Zubaydah of withholding and escalated.
"The escalation of brutality did not produce actionable intelligence, but this did not deter Mitchell and Jessen, as they were no longer actually seeking information. Rather, they were using Abu Zubaydah as a guinea pig for untested interrogation methods, laying the groundwork for what provided them a hugely lucrative contracting business to provide detention and interrogation personnel to the CIA and the U.S. Defense Department (“DOD”)," the complaint said.
Zubaydah's attorneys, including New York-based Soloman Shinerock and Spokane attorney Jeffry Finer, say neither Mitchell nor Jessen were qualified to develop an interrogation program for detainees and had no knowledge of Al-Qaeda.
Their techniques, the complaint says, were based on Air Force Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) training they'd given at Fairchild Air Force base. That training involved mock interrogations that "did not involve genuine coercion and was not a model for effective interrogation."
Zubaydah's attorneys say these techniques were "experimental" and had "no proven track record and were built on the shaky, pseudo-scientific foundation of learned helplessness."
Learned helplessness, originally conceptualized in 1967 based on experiments on dogs, means detainees became passive, compliant, and unable to resist their interrogators’ demands for information.
Mitchell and Jensen's enhanced interrogation program eventually earned them $80 million from contracting with the CIA and Department of Defense. These techniques were largely the subject of a 2014 Senate subcommittee report on CIA interrogations.
Jessen and Mitchell have been sued for their interrogation tactics before; a 2015 lawsuit brought by three former detainees, including one man who died, was settled for an undisclosed amount.
Zubaydah, his attorneys write, still has lasting mental and physical injuries – including the loss of his left eye and partial amnesia. They declined to comment when reached by KREM 2 News.
Zubaydah is asking for a jury trial and financial compensation.
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