There WAS an Establishment cover-up of child abuse as the powerful looked after themselves, says former inquiry chief
Lady Butler-Sloss says Establishment did not think abuse was serious
She had been appointed to lead inquiry into allegations of a cover-up
Due to investigate politicians, police, judiciary and the BBC over decades
Her brother Michael Havers was attorney general in the Cabinet 1979-87
By Matt Chorley, Political Editor for MailOnline
31 December 2014
There was an Establishment cover-up of horrific child abuse because powerful figures looked after themselves, former judge Lady Butler-Sloss warned today.
Senior members of British society in the past did not think child abuse was as serious or important as protecting politicians and other members of the elite, she suggested....
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2892595/There-Establishment-cover-child-abuse-powerful-looked-says-former-inquiry-chief.html
John Mann MP says scale of historical child abuse claims 'too many for state' 1 January 2015
The number of victims claiming historical child abuse could reach the tens of thousands and is too many for the state to cope with, an MP says.
John Mann, who has given a dossier of allegations of historical abuse to Scotland Yard, told the Today programme victims wanted a national institute....
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-30647646
Cleanse web of all child abuse images, urges NSPCC chief
Charity boss admits ‘gargantuan task’ but warns anything less than zero-tolerance could produce huge future problem
NSPCC chief Peter Wanless fears a big problem in future unless a war is waged now to eradicate online images of child sex abuse. Thursday 1 January 2015
....Last month, David Cameron told a child abuse summit that a joint specialist unit run by the National Crime Agency and listening post GCHQ will target the most prolific offenders who are using increasingly sophisticated techniques to hide their identities and encrypt and share images online.
Writing in the Daily Mirror, Wanless described the campaign against sexual abuse of children as “one of the biggest challenges facing society”.
He stated that around four in five child abuse images feature a boy or girl under the age of 11 – including babies – and half of them show children being tortured or raped by an adult.
....“Now it has the funding to work pro-actively, instead of waiting for reports to come in, it has identified nearly 28,000 offending web pages – more than twice last year’s total.
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jan/01/cleanse-child-abuse-images-web-nspcc-chief
Child abuse images must be removed from the internet before viewing them becomes an acceptable part of home life, says NSPCC chief
Peter Wanless wants all online child sex abuse images removed in 5 years
NSPCC chief said it is important to ensure existence of the images do not slide into the dark corners of the acceptable and become part of life
He said we should all feel guilty while abuse images still exist online
By Claire Carter for MailOnline 1 January 2015
....In 2013 almost 5,000 computers were seized by just over a third of the 43 forces in England and Wales. But most forces have just six officers available to analyse often hundreds, or even thousands, of images.
There were 2,393 arrests for possessing, downloading, distributing child abuse images in 2013-14, according to data from 30 police forces and charities have warned that with the increased popularity of the internet the problem is a growing one....
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2893541/Child-abuse-images-removed-internet-viewing-acceptable-home-life-says-NSPCC-chief.html
Friday, January 2, 2015
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Tor's most visited hidden sites host child abuse images, Police investigating 718 cases of child abuse in Northern Ireland
Tor's most visited hidden sites host child abuse images
By Mark Ward Technology correspondent, BBC News 30 December 2014
Most traffic to sites hidden on the Tor network go to those dealing in images of child sexual abuse a study suggests. The six-month study sought to catalogue hidden services on the so-called "dark net" and work out which were the most popular.
It found lots of sites peddling illegal drugs but the most popular were those involved with abuse.
However, the researcher behind the study said it was hard to conclude that people were behind all the visits.
Tor, or The Onion Router, is an anonymising system that lets people use the web without revealing who they are or which country they are in. The anonymity offered by the network has encouraged many people to set up hidden .onion sites that offer content, services and goods that it is illegal to sell openly....
Although the number of sites dealing in images of abuse on Tor is small, traffic to them dwarfs that going to other sites, said Dr Owen. About 75% of the traffic observed in the study ended up at abuse sites, said Dr Owen....
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30637010
Police investigating 718 cases of child abuse in Northern Ireland
And calls to local NSPCC helpline show sharp rise
524 individuals have contacted the inquiry into historical abuse.
By Adrian Rutherford – 30 December 2014
Officers are probing 718 "live" cases where the victim was aged under 18.
The figure is thought to include a number of historic allegations relating to children's care homes.
It comes as a leading charity revealed it has seen the number of calls to a specialist helpline jump by almost a quarter in the last year.
The issue of child abuse has been in the headlines throughout 2014. A State inquiry into historical abuse in Northern Ireland, chaired by retired judge Sir Anthony Hart, opened in January. The inquiry, which has so far been contacted by 524 individuals, has already heard harrowing testimonies from victims.
And in November a report estimated that up to 145 children were at significant risk of exploitation in Northern Ireland....
The paper by Professor Kathleen Marshall revealed paramilitaries were using fear and intimidation to sexually exploit children. It also uncovered cases involving the military, revealing that soldiers had been disciplined for smuggling girls into two different barracks in the last three years....
The Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIA) is examining allegations of child abuse in children's homes and other residential institutions between 1922 and 1995. It is the biggest child abuse public inquiry ever held in the UK, having been contacted by 524 people who said they were abused in childhood. Most complainants are from the UK, 65 are from Australia and 26 from the Irish Republic.
The HIA inquiry was set up by the First and Deputy First Minister in May 2012. Its aim is to establish if there were "systemic failings by institutions or the state in their duties towards those children in their care".
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/child-abuse-media-coverage-of-highprofile-cases-has-given-more-children-courage-to-seek-help-30869078.html
Monday, December 29, 2014
Allegations of child sex abuse are complicated by a legal maze in Indian country, Ministry of Defence pays out £2 million to settle cadets' sex abuse claims
Ministry of Defence pays out £2 million to settle cadets' sex abuse claims
One case involved a teenage girl who was sexually abused by her adult cadet instructor and gave birth to her abuser's child
By Bill Gardner 28 Dec 2014
The Ministry of Defence has paid out more than £2 million in out-of-court settlements in the last three years as a result of claims that young cadets were sexually abused.
The cases includes allegations that teenage boys performed ritual sex acts on younger cadets, and a cadet who was raped by an instructor and gave birth to her abuser’s child....
Some of the settlements are understood to relate to historic abuse, perpetrated against adults when they were children. Others relate to abuse carried out in recent years....
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11315528/Ministry-of-Defence-pays-out-2-million-to-settle-cadets-sex-abuse-claims.html
A man of healing, a saga of suffering
Allegations of child sex abuse are complicated by a legal maze in Indian country
December 28, 2014
....The sexual abuse of children has long been regarded as a rampant if largely unspoken problem on Native American reservations, in part a legacy of a boarding school system that was designed to assimilate students and subjected them to widespread sexual, emotional and physical abuse, according to Native leaders and prosecutors.
....Child sexual abuse on the reservations is at the root of the many problems that follow for Indian children — depression, alcohol and drug abuse, juvenile detention and suicide, according to Indian country experts. The challenge of getting victims to speak out — common in child sexual assault cases anywhere — is exacerbated by the close-knit nature of the remote communities where they live.
The U.S. attorney for South Dakota, Brendan V. Johnson, said that sexual violence is one of the most common criminal offenses on the nine reservations where he shares criminal jurisdiction with the tribes, but it is extremely difficult to bring charges.
“Victims are placed under tremendous pressure by family members and friends to recant their stories,” said Johnson, who declined to discuss details of the Chipps case. “The complaint will come in, the victims will be forensically interviewed and will provide us with specific facts about what happened and then, months later, will recant their stories.”
....Many studies tie sexual abuse to the intergenerational trauma that began in the secular and church-run boarding schools that Indian children were required to attend. Court documents and lawsuit settlements reveal how the boarding schools, especially in places like South Dakota, were centers of widespread sexual, emotional and physical abuse.
Many of the children who attended the schools are the parents and grandparents of today’s Native American children. “There were individuals who were willing to move out in the middle of nowhere in order to work at boarding schools with these children and there were some who had a pre-disposition for child sex abuse and many of the children were sexually abused,” Thompson said. “Unfortunately, that has become a cycle that was passed down from generation to generation. You compound that with the poverty, socioeconomic and isolation issues in Indian country and unfortunately that cycle has not yet been broken.”....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2014/12/28/a-man-of-healing-a-saga-of-suffering/
One case involved a teenage girl who was sexually abused by her adult cadet instructor and gave birth to her abuser's child
By Bill Gardner 28 Dec 2014
The Ministry of Defence has paid out more than £2 million in out-of-court settlements in the last three years as a result of claims that young cadets were sexually abused.
The cases includes allegations that teenage boys performed ritual sex acts on younger cadets, and a cadet who was raped by an instructor and gave birth to her abuser’s child....
Some of the settlements are understood to relate to historic abuse, perpetrated against adults when they were children. Others relate to abuse carried out in recent years....
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11315528/Ministry-of-Defence-pays-out-2-million-to-settle-cadets-sex-abuse-claims.html
A man of healing, a saga of suffering
Allegations of child sex abuse are complicated by a legal maze in Indian country
December 28, 2014
....The sexual abuse of children has long been regarded as a rampant if largely unspoken problem on Native American reservations, in part a legacy of a boarding school system that was designed to assimilate students and subjected them to widespread sexual, emotional and physical abuse, according to Native leaders and prosecutors.
....Child sexual abuse on the reservations is at the root of the many problems that follow for Indian children — depression, alcohol and drug abuse, juvenile detention and suicide, according to Indian country experts. The challenge of getting victims to speak out — common in child sexual assault cases anywhere — is exacerbated by the close-knit nature of the remote communities where they live.
The U.S. attorney for South Dakota, Brendan V. Johnson, said that sexual violence is one of the most common criminal offenses on the nine reservations where he shares criminal jurisdiction with the tribes, but it is extremely difficult to bring charges.
“Victims are placed under tremendous pressure by family members and friends to recant their stories,” said Johnson, who declined to discuss details of the Chipps case. “The complaint will come in, the victims will be forensically interviewed and will provide us with specific facts about what happened and then, months later, will recant their stories.”
....Many studies tie sexual abuse to the intergenerational trauma that began in the secular and church-run boarding schools that Indian children were required to attend. Court documents and lawsuit settlements reveal how the boarding schools, especially in places like South Dakota, were centers of widespread sexual, emotional and physical abuse.
Many of the children who attended the schools are the parents and grandparents of today’s Native American children. “There were individuals who were willing to move out in the middle of nowhere in order to work at boarding schools with these children and there were some who had a pre-disposition for child sex abuse and many of the children were sexually abused,” Thompson said. “Unfortunately, that has become a cycle that was passed down from generation to generation. You compound that with the poverty, socioeconomic and isolation issues in Indian country and unfortunately that cycle has not yet been broken.”....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2014/12/28/a-man-of-healing-a-saga-of-suffering/
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Couple accused of abusing a child in 'black magic' case are found guilty of all counts
Couple accused of abusing a child in 'black magic' case are found guilty of all counts Dec 22, 2014 By David Deans
Carolee Hickman, 64, indecently assaulted a schoolgirl and held her down while her husband Albert John Hickman, 65, raped her
A woman accused of using black magic to abuse a child, and her husband, who raped the child as she held her down, have been found guilty of all charges by a jury at Cardiff Crown Court.
Carolee Hickman, 64, was on trial for indecently assaulting a schoolgirl and holding the victim down while her husband Albert John Hickman, 65, raped her during the 1970s.
She had been accused of grooming and abusing the young schoolgirl when they lived in South Wales at the time, after petrifying her with black magic threats.
The couple, both of the Wheatlands, Baschurch, Shrewsbury, were found guilty on all counts....
“Carolee said she was a witch and would come and get me and would make my mother ill,” the victim said.
“She even said she could kill my mother if she wanted to.
“She had a knife with a jewelled handle kept in a wooden box with carvings on the top.
“She cut my hand and sucked the blood out of it.
“There were tarot cards, she used to tell our fortunes and she even had a black cape.”....
A large number of books on spells and the occult were found when officers arrested the grandmother and her husband at their home in Shropshire.....
Carolee Hickman told police they separated while he was serving 10 years (reduced to eight on appeal), and she five years for child sex offences, which they had been convicted of in 1982 in Northampton....
Mr Hickman was sentenced for five sex offences and Mrs Hickman for indecent assault and for aiding and abetting another man to rape a 14 year old girl as part of a devil worship ritual.
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/couple-accused-abusing-child-black-8331997
Carolee Hickman, 64, indecently assaulted a schoolgirl and held her down while her husband Albert John Hickman, 65, raped her
A woman accused of using black magic to abuse a child, and her husband, who raped the child as she held her down, have been found guilty of all charges by a jury at Cardiff Crown Court.
Carolee Hickman, 64, was on trial for indecently assaulting a schoolgirl and holding the victim down while her husband Albert John Hickman, 65, raped her during the 1970s.
She had been accused of grooming and abusing the young schoolgirl when they lived in South Wales at the time, after petrifying her with black magic threats.
The couple, both of the Wheatlands, Baschurch, Shrewsbury, were found guilty on all counts....
“Carolee said she was a witch and would come and get me and would make my mother ill,” the victim said.
“She even said she could kill my mother if she wanted to.
“She had a knife with a jewelled handle kept in a wooden box with carvings on the top.
“She cut my hand and sucked the blood out of it.
“There were tarot cards, she used to tell our fortunes and she even had a black cape.”....
A large number of books on spells and the occult were found when officers arrested the grandmother and her husband at their home in Shropshire.....
Carolee Hickman told police they separated while he was serving 10 years (reduced to eight on appeal), and she five years for child sex offences, which they had been convicted of in 1982 in Northampton....
Mr Hickman was sentenced for five sex offences and Mrs Hickman for indecent assault and for aiding and abetting another man to rape a 14 year old girl as part of a devil worship ritual.
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/couple-accused-abusing-child-black-8331997
Monday, December 22, 2014
Five Westminster paedophile rings probed by Scotland Yard, Three Current MPs And Three Lords Named In Westminster Paedophile Ring Dossier Handed To Police
Five Westminster paedophile rings probed by Scotland Yard
Claims emerge of a complex web of child abuse at the heart of government, as leading MP in campaign for justice hands list of 22 names to police
By David Barrett, Home Affairs Correspondent 21 Dec 2014
Police are investigating claims that up to five paedophile rings operated at the heart of Westminster with the involvement of “highly influential” politicians.
A Labour MP who has handed a dossier of evidence to Scotland Yard said he now believed the complexity of child abuse networks at the heart of government in the Seventies and Eighties had been seriously underestimated.
John Mann, MP for Bassetlaw, said it was “inconceivable” that police would not now arrest and interview some of the politicians he has named in a list handed to detectives earlier this month.
Mr Mann, who has spent months sifting evidence from members of the public, met Scotland Yard and handed over evidence on 22 politicians, including three serving MPs and three members of the House of Lords....
“I think the 22 names are all worthy of investigation by the police," Mr Mann told The Telegraph.
“In my opinion the evidence against approximately half of them is very compelling....
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11306575/Five-Westminster-paedophile-rings-probed-by-Scotland-Yard.html
Three Current MPs And Three Lords Named In Westminster Paedophile Ring Dossier Handed To Police
Lara O'Reilly Dec. 22, 2014
Scotland Yard has been handed a document that contains names of 22 high profile figures, including three serving MPs and three members of the House of Lords, alleged to be involved in the suspected Westminster paedophile ring during the 1970s and 1980s, The Daily Telegraph reports.
Labour MP John Mann has spent months sifting through hundreds of reports from the public about the historic sex abuse cases and has now handed a dossier to the police that suggests up to five paedophile rings were operating at the heart of UK government, each them involving at least one MP.
Of the total number involved — some of whom are now dead and some who are still alive, but not active in Westminster — 14 are Conservative politicians, five are from Labour and three were from other parties. Overall, 13 former ministers are named on the list.
Mann told The Sunday Times he also received allegations that an organised criminal gang and a celebrity were involved in the trafficking of young boys to abusers at Dophin Square in London, the block of flats prominent figures allegedly used as a venue for child abuse. He added that he is receiving new information all the time and that there could be many more names added to that list....
http://www.businessinsider.com/mps-and-peers-named-in-westminster-child-abuse-evidence-handed-to-police-2014-12
Friday, December 19, 2014
'Sons Of Guns' Star Indicted On Multiple Rape Charges, Why the Torture Report Won’t Change Anything
'Sons Of Guns' Star Indicted On Multiple Rape Charges
The Huffington Post
Cavan Sieczkowski December 19, 2014
The former star of Discovery Channel's "Sons of Guns," Will Hayden, was indicted on multiple rape charges Wednesday in Louisiana.
An East Baton Rouge Parish grand jury indicted Hayden, 49, on three counts of rape involving two females, the Times-Picayune reported. The charges against him include two counts of aggravated rape and one count of forcible rape. If convicted of aggravated rape, he faces a mandatory life sentence.
Hayden is accused of raping two preteen girls, according to the Advocate. He is accused of raping a girl in East Baton Rouge beginning in March 2013, when she was 11 years old, until August 2014.
Additionally, a woman, who is now in her 30s, also came forward claiming Hayden raped her in the 1990s when she was 12 years old, the Advocate reported....
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/entertainment/celebrity/sons-of-guns-star-indicted-on-multiple-rape-charges/ar-BBh07RX
Why the Torture Report Won’t Change Anything
At most, it only further proves the incompatibility of a secret intelligence service and an open democracy.
Tim Weiner December 16, 2014
The report on the brutalities of the CIA’s secret prisons is the most important work by the Senate Intelligence Committee since congressional oversight of the CIA began in the 1970s. Its descriptions of torture and deception are as compelling as the newsreels of the Nuremberg trials....
It appears that the CIA did not give President Bush a full report on the gory details of the secret prisons for four years. This is “plausible deniability,” which shields the president from legal or moral hazard by keeping him in the dark. That practice was supposed to have ended decades ago.
The CIA had also forbidden the use of torture—“not only because it is wrong, but because it has historically proven to be ineffective,” in the words of Richard Stolz, chief of the clandestine service under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Stolz is cited in the Senate report. The CIA’s codes of conduct before 9/11 clearly stated, “Inhumane physical or psychological techniques are counterproductive because they do not produce intelligence and will probably result in false answers.”
False answers were what Congress got from Bush’s CIA directors and their underlings. They delivered deceptive testimony and destroyed videotapes of torture. Brennan had to reprimand five officers for cybersnooping on the Senate’s files. The intelligence committees cannot function if the CIA lies to them and spies on them. That, too, was supposed to have ended when the committees were created in the 1970s....
http://www.thenation.com/article/193161/why-torture-report-wont-change-anything
The Huffington Post
Cavan Sieczkowski December 19, 2014
The former star of Discovery Channel's "Sons of Guns," Will Hayden, was indicted on multiple rape charges Wednesday in Louisiana.
An East Baton Rouge Parish grand jury indicted Hayden, 49, on three counts of rape involving two females, the Times-Picayune reported. The charges against him include two counts of aggravated rape and one count of forcible rape. If convicted of aggravated rape, he faces a mandatory life sentence.
Hayden is accused of raping two preteen girls, according to the Advocate. He is accused of raping a girl in East Baton Rouge beginning in March 2013, when she was 11 years old, until August 2014.
Additionally, a woman, who is now in her 30s, also came forward claiming Hayden raped her in the 1990s when she was 12 years old, the Advocate reported....
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/entertainment/celebrity/sons-of-guns-star-indicted-on-multiple-rape-charges/ar-BBh07RX
Why the Torture Report Won’t Change Anything
At most, it only further proves the incompatibility of a secret intelligence service and an open democracy.
Tim Weiner December 16, 2014
The report on the brutalities of the CIA’s secret prisons is the most important work by the Senate Intelligence Committee since congressional oversight of the CIA began in the 1970s. Its descriptions of torture and deception are as compelling as the newsreels of the Nuremberg trials....
It appears that the CIA did not give President Bush a full report on the gory details of the secret prisons for four years. This is “plausible deniability,” which shields the president from legal or moral hazard by keeping him in the dark. That practice was supposed to have ended decades ago.
The CIA had also forbidden the use of torture—“not only because it is wrong, but because it has historically proven to be ineffective,” in the words of Richard Stolz, chief of the clandestine service under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Stolz is cited in the Senate report. The CIA’s codes of conduct before 9/11 clearly stated, “Inhumane physical or psychological techniques are counterproductive because they do not produce intelligence and will probably result in false answers.”
False answers were what Congress got from Bush’s CIA directors and their underlings. They delivered deceptive testimony and destroyed videotapes of torture. Brennan had to reprimand five officers for cybersnooping on the Senate’s files. The intelligence committees cannot function if the CIA lies to them and spies on them. That, too, was supposed to have ended when the committees were created in the 1970s....
http://www.thenation.com/article/193161/why-torture-report-wont-change-anything
Thursday, December 18, 2014
The CIA Didn’t Just Torture, It Experimented on Human Beings
The CIA Didn’t Just Torture, It Experimented on Human Beings
Reframing the CIA’s interrogation techniques as a violation of scientific and medical ethics may be the best way to achieve accountability.
Lisa Hajjar December 16, 2014
Human experimentation was a core feature of the CIA’s torture program. The experimental nature of the interrogation and detention techniques is clearly evident in the Senate Intelligence Committee’s executive summary of its investigative report, despite redactions (insisted upon by the CIA) to obfuscate the locations of these laboratories of cruel science and the identities of perpetrators.
At the helm of this human experimentation project were two psychologists hired by the CIA, James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen. They designed interrogation and detention protocols that they and others applied to people imprisoned in the agency’s secret “black sites.”
In its response to the Senate report, the CIA justified its decision to hire the duo: “We believe their expertise was so unique that we would have been derelict had we not sought them out when it became clear that CIA would be heading into the uncharted territory of the program.” Mitchell and Jessen’s qualifications did not include interrogation experience, specialized knowledge about Al Qaeda or relevant cultural or linguistic knowledge. What they had was Air Force experience in studying the effects of torture on American prisoners of war, as well as a curiosity about whether theories of “learned helplessness” derived from experiments on dogs might work on human enemies....
The “war on terror” is not the CIA’s first venture into human experimentation. At the dawn of the Cold War, German scientists and doctors with Nazi records of human experimentation were given new identities and brought to the United States under Operation Paperclip. During the Korean War, alarmed by the shocking rapidity of American POWs’ breakdowns and indoctrination by their communist captors, the CIA began investing in mind-control research. In 1953, the CIA established the MK-ULTRA program, whose earliest phase involved hypnosis, electroshock and hallucinogenic drugs. The program evolved into experiments in psychological torture that adapted elements of Soviet and Chinese models, including longtime standing, protracted isolation, sleep deprivation and humiliation. Those lessons soon became an applied “science” in the Cold War.
During the Vietnam War, the CIA developed the Phoenix program, which combined psychological torture with brutal interrogations, human experimentation and extrajudicial executions. In 1963, the CIA produced a manual titled “Kubark Counterintelligence Interrogation” to guide agents in the art of extracting information from “resistant” sources by combining techniques to produce “debility, disorientation and dread.” Like the communists, the CIA largely eschewed tactics that violently target the body in favor of those that target the mind by systematically attacking all human senses in order to produce the desired state of compliance. The Phoenix program model was incorporated into the curriculum of the School of the Americas, and an updated version of the Kubark guide, produced in 1983 and titled “Human Resource Exploitation Manual,” was disseminated to the intelligence services of right-wing regimes in Latin America and Southeast Asia during the global “war on communism.”
In the mid-1980s, CIA practices became the subject of congressional investigations into US-supported atrocities in Central America....
http://www.thenation.com/article/193185/cia-didnt-just-torture-it-experimented-human-beings#
Reframing the CIA’s interrogation techniques as a violation of scientific and medical ethics may be the best way to achieve accountability.
Lisa Hajjar December 16, 2014
Human experimentation was a core feature of the CIA’s torture program. The experimental nature of the interrogation and detention techniques is clearly evident in the Senate Intelligence Committee’s executive summary of its investigative report, despite redactions (insisted upon by the CIA) to obfuscate the locations of these laboratories of cruel science and the identities of perpetrators.
At the helm of this human experimentation project were two psychologists hired by the CIA, James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen. They designed interrogation and detention protocols that they and others applied to people imprisoned in the agency’s secret “black sites.”
In its response to the Senate report, the CIA justified its decision to hire the duo: “We believe their expertise was so unique that we would have been derelict had we not sought them out when it became clear that CIA would be heading into the uncharted territory of the program.” Mitchell and Jessen’s qualifications did not include interrogation experience, specialized knowledge about Al Qaeda or relevant cultural or linguistic knowledge. What they had was Air Force experience in studying the effects of torture on American prisoners of war, as well as a curiosity about whether theories of “learned helplessness” derived from experiments on dogs might work on human enemies....
The “war on terror” is not the CIA’s first venture into human experimentation. At the dawn of the Cold War, German scientists and doctors with Nazi records of human experimentation were given new identities and brought to the United States under Operation Paperclip. During the Korean War, alarmed by the shocking rapidity of American POWs’ breakdowns and indoctrination by their communist captors, the CIA began investing in mind-control research. In 1953, the CIA established the MK-ULTRA program, whose earliest phase involved hypnosis, electroshock and hallucinogenic drugs. The program evolved into experiments in psychological torture that adapted elements of Soviet and Chinese models, including longtime standing, protracted isolation, sleep deprivation and humiliation. Those lessons soon became an applied “science” in the Cold War.
During the Vietnam War, the CIA developed the Phoenix program, which combined psychological torture with brutal interrogations, human experimentation and extrajudicial executions. In 1963, the CIA produced a manual titled “Kubark Counterintelligence Interrogation” to guide agents in the art of extracting information from “resistant” sources by combining techniques to produce “debility, disorientation and dread.” Like the communists, the CIA largely eschewed tactics that violently target the body in favor of those that target the mind by systematically attacking all human senses in order to produce the desired state of compliance. The Phoenix program model was incorporated into the curriculum of the School of the Americas, and an updated version of the Kubark guide, produced in 1983 and titled “Human Resource Exploitation Manual,” was disseminated to the intelligence services of right-wing regimes in Latin America and Southeast Asia during the global “war on communism.”
In the mid-1980s, CIA practices became the subject of congressional investigations into US-supported atrocities in Central America....
http://www.thenation.com/article/193185/cia-didnt-just-torture-it-experimented-human-beings#
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