WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd January, 2020) A private contractor for the CIA who played a key role in developing so-called "waterboarding" interrogation techniques that have been condemned as torture faced the beginning of a week of questioning by lawyers at the US detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Washington Post reported.
James Mitchell was quizzed by defense lawyers representing five detainees at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, including Khaled Shaikh Mohammad, who is accused of being the architect of the hijack plot on September 11, 2001, that killed almost 3,000 Americans, the report said on Tuesday.
The five are to face a war crimes trial a year from now at Guantanamo Bay and could face the death penalty if convicted. They claim the evidence they gave against themselves to the FBI was tainted because they had been coerced by CIA interrogators using the techniques of Mitchell, a former US Air Force psychologist, the report noted.
Mitchell worked with others including another private contractor to develop the waterboarding interrogation techniques. He said the CIA feared another catastrophic attack, that might include nuclear weapons was being planned and had to be detected and prevented, the report said.
