International » Lawsuit Accuses CIA Contractors Of Torture

Lawsuit Accuses CIA Contractors Of Torture

November 28, 2016

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A lawsuit filed in 2015 in Federal District Court in Spokane, Wash., has gone farther than any other attempt to hold individuals responsible for torture in CIA-run secret prisons. The suit was filed by two former detainees, and a representative of a third detainee who died in custody. They target contractors, psychologists who were hired by the agency to devise and run an interrogation program. The psychologists – James E. Mitchell and Bruce Jessen – say they acted with government permission. Lawyers representing the psychologists have sparred with the Justice Department over what classified evidence is needed to defend against the suit’s allegations, and legal experts say Donald Trump’s incoming administration could dismiss the case on national security grounds. Trump could invoke the so-called state secret privilege over evidence requested in the suit. Mitchell and Jessen’s lawyers have argued that their clients should receive “sovereign immunity” because they acted on the government’s behalf. But U.S. District Court Judge Justin L. Quackenbush denied the motion, and the case has proceeded under the Alien Tort Statute, which allows foreigners to sue in U.S. courts for human rights violations.

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