© The Stuff of Life
The years since the Sept. 11 attacks have seen myriad lawsuits brought to expose the horror of the CIA's Bush-era torture program and obtain compensation and accountability for its victims, only to be dismissed as courts invariably bowed to claims of state secrets served up by both the Bush and Obama Justice Departments.
Against that backdrop,
the settlement in the case of Salim v. Mitchell, involving claims against two psychologists hired by the CIA to design and implement the "enhanced interrogation techniques," is a significant if imperfect breakthrough. For starters, the case did not end with dismissal. The settlement deal marks
the first time the CIA or its private contractors have been held accountable for the agency's brutal torture program.The ACLU and the law firm Gibbons PC brought the lawsuit against the
pair of psychologist-torturers, James Mitchell and John "Bruce" Jessen, on behalf of three victims of their methods, for which their company was paid $81 million by the CIA. This litany of abuse - blessed by the U.S. government - included waterboarding, beatings, confinement in coffin-like boxes, confinement in painful stress positions, exposure to extreme temperatures and severe sleep deprivation.
The plaintiffs were
two torture survivors eventually released without charges after officials determined they posed no threat - Suleiman Abdullah Salim, a Tanzanian, and Mohamed Ahmed Ben Soud, a Libyan -
and representatives of another detainee, Gul Rahman, an Afghan citizen who died during his torture regimen 15 years ago. Rahman,
The New York Times recounted, "was found dead, naked from the waist down on a bare concrete floor in the freezing cold at a secret CIA prison... shackled and short-chained to a wall." The CIA conducted a review, but
no one was ever criminally charged in his death.
Comment: MSM has to double down on a losing bet...because admitting being wrong and stupid doesn't sell news.