The architects of the US torture program say the CIA called them 'pussies' when they tried to stop

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June 21, 2017 7:01 PM

Despite creating the interrogation techniques, and their business getting paid $81 million to do so, the two doctors claim they aren't the architects.

This image obtained by the Associated Press shows Sgt. Michael Smith, left, with his dog Marco, watching a detainee at an unspecified date in 2003 at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, Iraq. Military psychologists were enlisted to help develop more aggressive interrogation methods, including snarling dogs, forced nudity and long periods of standing, against terrorism suspects, according to a Senate investigation.

One of the two military psychologists who created the "enhanced" interrogation techniques used by the CIA in the years after 9/11 testified earlier this year that CIA officials called them "pussies" when they wanted to stop waterboarding detainees, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.

The two psychologists, Drs.

“‘You guys have lost your spine.’ I think the word that was actually used is that you guys are pussies. There was going to be another attack in America and the blood of dead civilians are going to be on your hands," Mitchell said CIA officials told him and Jessen when they asked to stop waterboarding detainees.

Despite devising and training others to carry out the interrogation techniques, and their business getting paid $81 million to do so, Jessen and Mitchell also both claim they were not the architects of the program, the Times said.

The trial is scheduled to begin on Sept. 5.

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