Torture Connection: Invented 'Category 3' interrogations
Major John Francis Leso
- 2002-2003 Member, Behavioral Science Consultation Team JTF-GTMO
- 2002 Author, interrogation protocol that relied in part on SERE "reverse-engineered" torture techniques
- 2002, 2003 Chief of the Clinical Psychology Service, Walter Reed Army Medical Center
- 2005 U.S. Embassy Austria
- 1996-current? Member, American Psychological Association (APA)
An army psychologist with no training or experience in interrogations, Dr. Leso in June 2002 became the first psychological clinician assigned to the new U.S. prison compounds at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. As the first psychologist serving with one of the new Behavioral Science Consultation Teams (BSCTs) at Guantanamo, Leso was tasked with using his professional expertise to support interrogators by establishing procedures and general detention conditions that would break down the prisoners' mental and emotional resistance to interrogation.
Official logs from Guantanamo indicate that Leso participated in abusive interrogation sessions and advised interrogators on how to increase the suffering of prisoners.
Prisoners under Leso abused to point of hospitalization
The BSCT teams were charged with establishing conditions that would maximize prisoners' mental, emotional, and physical distress, in hopes of breaking down their resistance to interrogation. For example, Dr. Leso was involved in sessions with prisoner Mohammed al Qahtani that included intravenous administration of large quantities of fluids; when al Qahtani requested permission to go to the bathroom, he was chained in place and told to urinate on himself. Also, al Qahtani twice needed hospital treatment for hypothermia inflicted intentionally when he was kept naked in chilled cells.
Comment: Also see: NSA's Newest Recruiters: Cartoon-Leopard Twins