{"id":85120,"date":"2017-01-09T12:00:18","date_gmt":"2017-01-09T12:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=85120"},"modified":"2017-01-05T13:16:06","modified_gmt":"2017-01-05T13:16:06","slug":"heart-of-darkness-observations-on-a-torture-notebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/01\/heart-of-darkness-observations-on-a-torture-notebook\/","title":{"rendered":"Heart of Darkness: Observations on a Torture Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A psychologist tries to defend the indefensible, and fails. <\/em><\/p>\n

Just in time for the Trump Administration\u2019s official embrace of brutality, we have another book defending torture: Enhanced Interrogation<\/em> by psychologist James Mitchell. For those unfamiliar with the author, he\u2019s a central figure in the Senate Intelligence<\/a> Committee\u2019s scathing 2014 report<\/a> summary on CIA abuse. And he\u2019s a co-defendant \u2013 for having \u201cdesigned, implemented, and personally administered an experimental torture program\u201d \u2013 in the ACLU\u2019s lawsuit<\/a> on behalf of three war-on-terror detainees (Suleiman Abdullah Salim, Mohamed Ahmed Ben Soud, and the estate of the deceased Gul Rahman).<\/p>\n

Although subtitled \u201cInside the Minds and Motives of the Islamic Terrorists Trying to Destroy America,\u201d Mitchell\u2019s implausible and self-serving account actually reveals much more about him than it does about the men he helped torture.\u00a0Here are several reasons why.<\/p>\n

Mitchell\u2019s dubious claims about the CIA\u2019s abusive and torturous \u201cenhanced interrogation techniques\u201d (EITs) are reason enough to doubt his credibility. Consider this preposterous defense of the EITs: \u201cAlthough they were unpleasant, their use protected detainees from being subjected to unproven and perhaps harsher techniques made up on the fly.\u201d\u00a0Apparently being locked in a coffin-like box for hours, or deprived of sleep<\/a> for days, or repeatedly slammed into a wall is merely \u201cunpleasant,\u201d somewhat akin to getting caught in the rain without an umbrella. Indeed, perhaps the victims should have offered thanks for not having had their fingers crushed or their fingernails pulled out. Mitchell\u2019s suggestion that his EITs were somehow \u201cproven\u201d \u2013 in contrast to other techniques \u2013 is equally absurd. Proven not to be harmful? Not true<\/a>. Proven to \u201cwork\u201d? Also false<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Consider as well Mitchell\u2019s deceptive description of waterboarding, the king of the hill when it comes to EITs: \u201cThe waterboard induces fear<\/a> and panic<\/a>. It is scary and uncomfortable but not painful.\u201d There\u2019s really no need to puzzle over how the experience of controlled drowning and near suffocation could possibly be pain-free. It\u2019s certainly not, except perhaps for the person who\u2019s pouring the water. The Senate report on CIA torture provides this account of Mitchell\u2019s first waterboarding session: \u201cOver a two-and-a-half-hour period, Abu Zubaydah coughed, vomited, and had \u2018involuntary spasms of the torso and extremities.\u2019\u201d Not painful?<\/p>\n

Just as disturbing are Mitchell\u2019s self-protective efforts to humanize the proponents and practitioners of torture. As one example, he describes a scene in which he and fellow contract psychologist Bruce Jessen waterboard Abu Zubaydah as a demonstration for a group of higher-ups from the CIA\u2019s Counterterrorism Center. Here\u2019s Mitchell\u2019s description of what happened when that interrogation\u00a0session came to an end: \u201c[We] told him we never wanted to do that again. He cried and promised to work for the CIA. Everyone, even those observing, was tearful.\u201d Perhaps they then passed around a box of tissue, followed by a round of hugs?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also a rather inconvenient truth that makes Mitchell\u2019s posturing as a self-sacrificing patriot unconvincing: he took home a small fortune from his years of involvement with CIA torture and abuse. In his book, Mitchell makes no mention of the reported $1,800-a-day consulting fees (tax-free) he initially received for his work. He also downplays his own haul from the $81 million CIA contract his firm Mitchell Jessen & Associates later received, writing: \u201cThe percentage of profit I earned from the contract was in the small single digits.\u201d Well, let\u2019s use \u201c3\u201d as a representative \u201csmall single digit.\u201d That works out to about $2.5 million for Mitchell alone. Not bad for such selflessness.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in Enhanced Interrogation<\/em>, Mitchell makes it clear that he cast aside professional psychology\u2019s do-no-harm ethics<\/a> in developing his gloves-off EITs. Obviously. By his reckoning, torturous techniques were \u201cjustified as long as those methods were lawful, authorized, and carefully monitored.\u201d Mitchell\u2019s personal calculus as a psychologist wasn\u2019t unique: similar thinking apparently prompted leaders of the American Psychological Association (APA) to collude<\/a> with the Bush Administration, thereby enabling psychologists to play key roles in abusive U.S. detention and interrogation operations. APA\u2019s tragic choices, made over the course of a decade, caused grievous harm. The verdict is still out on the organization\u2019s current efforts aimed at institutional reform<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When describing his decision to opt for the dark side, Mitchell offers this cryptic observation: \u201cI would never again be able to work as a psychologist.\u201d That sounds like good news, but what exactly does he mean? After all, Mitchell continued working \u201cas a psychologist\u201d for the CIA thereafter, and it was only years later that his identity<\/a> and his actions became publicly known. Meanwhile, most other psychologists involved in abusive interrogations \u2013 either at various black sites or at military detention facilities like Guantanamo Bay \u2013 remain unidentified even now. But if Mitchell\u2019s \u201cnever again\u201d comment means he thinks that all psychologists who\u2019ve engaged in these activities should never be allowed to practice in the light of day, it\u2019s difficult to disagree with him.<\/p>\n

Finally, it\u2019s hard not to be skeptical about the numerous lengthy conversations that are miraculously presented word-for-word in Enhanced Interrogation<\/em>, so many years after they transpired. However, there\u2019s one instance where Mitchell quotes himself that\u2019s worth highlighting here. He describes trying to persuade<\/a> Abu Zubaydah to answer his questions \u2013 just before turning to the waterboard instead \u2013 this way: \u201c\u2018In every man’s life there are moments of opportunity that open and close. Moments of choice when the decision you make forever changes what happens to you. This is one of those moments.\u2019\u201d Of course Mitchell was facing exactly the same kind of moment himself. The choice he made had calamitous effects that still persist today \u2013 not only for the detainees who were tortured, but for the profession and the country as well.<\/p>\n

__________________________________________<\/p>\n

Roy Eidelson is a member of the TRANSCEND Network<\/a> and was a member of the American Psychological Association for over 25 years, prior to his resignation. He is a clinical psychologist and the president of Eidelson Consulting<\/a>, where he studies, writes about, and consults on the role of psychological issues in political, organizational, and group conflict settings. He is a past president of Psychologists for Social Responsibility<\/a>, associate director of the Solomon Asch Center for Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict at Bryn Mawr College, and a member of the Coalition for an Ethical Psychology<\/a>. Roy can be reached at reidelson@eidelsonconsulting.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 psychologytoday.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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