ProPublica, Journalism in the Public Interest

Breaking on the Web: July 2, P.M. Edition

• GAO: White House Knew of Controversial Hunt-Kurdistan Oil Deal - Matthew Blake, Washington Independent
• FDA Favors Top Staff with Bonuses - Sydelle Moore, Medill News Service
• Fed. Agency: Protection of Humans in Research Has ‘Serious’ Flaws - Jeffrey Brainard, The Chronicle of Higher Education ($)
• Fla. Gave U.S. Sugar a Sweet Deal - Joshua Zumbrun, Forbes
• Countrywide’s PAC Closing Amid Inquiries - Jim McElhatton, The Washington Times
• Moody’s Loses a Key Player Amid Error Probe - Aaron Lucchetti, The Wall Street Journal
• Red Tape Delays $400 Million for Mexico Drug War - Stewart M. Powell, Houston Chronicle
• New Orleans, FEMA Wrangle Over Katrina Bills - Alex Roth, The Wall Street Journal
• Groups Sue Feds for Cellphone Tracking Info - Ellen Nakashima, Washington Post
• Ex-Intel Officer: Defense Earmarks Damage Nat’l Security - Eric Egland, The Washington Times

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Employee Sues Justice Department, Cites Discrimination in Civil Rights Division

The civil rights division of the Justice Department, which is responsible for enforcing federal anti-discrimination laws, has been accused in a recent lawsuit of discriminating against its own employees based on race.

A 13-year veteran of the division brought the suit, alleging she was “repeatedly denied the opportunity to apply and compete” for promotions because she is black.

Joi Hyatte, who works as an equal opportunity assistant in the division’s voting rights section, claims that superiors subjected her and “African-American colleagues to numerous forms of discrimination and harassment,” according to the suit filed May 29 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

“I saw the hiring process being abused,” Hyatte said in a recent interview with ProPublica. “I just want a fair chance to compete, but I was kept out.”

Black and white employees in the voting section have independently supported Hyatte’s claims. The suit alleges that several administrative employees have filed racial discrimination complaints against the section’s managers, which the Justice Department failed to investigate.

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The Psychologists Behind Abusive Interrogations of Detainees

This morning The New York Times' Scott Shane reports that back in late 2002 trainers at Guantanamo Bay "based an entire interrogation class on a chart" (pdf) that had been "copied verbatim from a 1957 Air Force study of Chinese Communist techniques used during the Korean War.

The chart listed "coercive management techniques," including "sleep deprivation," "prolonged constraint," and "exposure." The aim of the Chinese tactics was not to gain intelligence but rather to get propaganda statements. The study's title (pdf) summarized the approach: "Communist Attempts to Elicit False Confessions From Air Force Prisoners of War."

The Times explains that the chart had originally been used as part of the U.S. military's training program meant to prepare airmen and other service members in the event they were captured. Then the tactics migrated:    

In 2002, the training program, known as SERE, for Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape, became a source of interrogation methods both for the C.I.A. and the military.

This morning's Times doesn't go into any more detail about the connections between SERE and abusive interrogations of detainees. But others have.

As the New Yorker's Jane Mayer and others have reported, psychologists who once worked on the SERE program appear to have played a key role in transferring abusive techniques for use on detainees.

According to the New Yorker's Mayer:

[As] early as March, 2002, James Mitchell, a psychologist formerly affiliated with SERE, appeared inside an interrogation room where the C.I.A. was holding a "high-value" Al Qaeda suspect. (The interrogation took place at an undisclosed location.) Mitchell worked for years as a SERE administrator. In an interview, he said that he is now a private contractor and does not currently work with the Department of Defense. Asked if he has worked with the C.I.A., conducting interrogations, he said, "If that was true, I couldn't say anything about it." (A press officer at the C.I.A. also declined to comment on Mitchell.)

According to a counter-terrorism expert familiar with the interrogation of the al-Qaida suspect, Mitchell announced that the suspect needed to be subjected to rougher methods. The man should be treated like the dogs in a classic behavioral-psychology experiment, he said.

An article last year on Vanity Fair's Web site reported that the high-value detainee Mitchell appears to have helped interrogate in March 2002 was Abu Zubaydah, a top al-Qaida commander:

As Zubaydah clammed up, Mitchell seemed to conclude that Zubaydah would talk only when he had been reduced to complete helplessness and dependence. With that goal in mind, the C.I.A. team began building a coffin in which they planned to bury the detainee alive.

CIA superiors reportedly overruled the suggestion to bury Zubaydah. But according to Vanity Fair, Mitchell, along with fellow psychologist, Bruce Jessen, "reverse-engineered the tactics inflicted on SERE trainees":  

The C.I.A. put them in charge of training interrogators in the brutal techniques, including "waterboarding," at its network of "black sites." In a statement, Mitchell and Jessen said, "We are proud of the work we have done for our country."

The two psychologists eventually started their own consulting firm, Mitchell Jessen & Associates. It's unclear what the company's work is. We called and were told that the firm "does not speak to the press."

In addition to hearing their side of the story, we are interested in learning what contracts, if any, the company currently has with the government. We have filed a FOIA with the Department of Defense. Such requests don't have a high chance of success due to national security exemptions. But it's worth trying.  We'll let you know what we find.

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Breaking on the Web: July 2, A.M. Edition

Updated 11:45 am EDT

• U.S. Agrees to Lift Immunity for Contractors in Iraq - Sabrina Tavernise, The New York Times
• Tex. Gov. Requested Ethanol Waiver After $100,000 Gift to His GOP Group - R.G. Ratcliffe, Houston Chronicle
• Supreme Court’s Rape Ruling Based on Flawed Fact - Linda Greenhouse, The New York Times
• China Inspired Gitmo Interrogation Techniques - Scott Shane, The New York Times
• Google Ad Deal Under DoJ Antitrust Scrutiny - Peter Whoriskey, Washington Post
• Senator Halts Blackwater Calif. Expansion Plan - August Cole, The Wall Street Journal
• U.S. Contradicts Itself Over Its Own ID Theft Advice - Larry Margasak, AP
• Whistleblower Fraud Cases Languish at DoJ - Carrie Johnson, Washington Post
• Lobbyists Push for Sway Over Fuel-Economy Rules - Christopher Conkey and Stephen Power, The Wall Street Journal
• U.S. Allegedly Spies on Iraqi Army - Greg Miller, Los Angeles Times
• Office of Special Counsel to Scrutinize DoJ Hirings - Eric Lichtblau, The New York Times
• Calif. Group Accuses Nuclear Agency of Overlooking Threat - Matthew L. Wald, The New York Times
• Pentagon Chemical Weapons Transport Plan Draws Fire - Tom Vanden Brook, USA Today
• Air Force Finds Lax Nuclear Security - Walter Pincus, Washington Post

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