Waterboarding

To whom do we owe the CIA’s interrogation regimen? According to ABC News, “the CIA's secret water boarding program was designed and assured to be safe by two well-paid psychologists now working out of an unmarked office building in Spokane, Washington.” Bruce Jessen and Jim Mitchell, both former military officers, founded Mitchell Jessen and Associates and “together designed and implemented the CIA’s interrogation program.” Their associates say that they “boasted” of making $1,000 a day from the CIA. Neither had any experience as interrogators before the CIA hired them.

I very much doubt that the CIA paid Jessen and Mitchell for the water board design. If they did they were very stupid because it has been in use by the police in Latin American countries for many years and they know it. If they didn't, they should have read,“O Plata O Plomo?” (Silver or Lead?) by James Kuykendall (2005). Kuykendall, a top DEA agent, was even present while the Mexican police interrogated a couple of the major narcotics traffickers by use of this technique.