Career
In that report, he was mentioned under the pseudonym "Hammond Dunbar." His company, Mitchell Jessen and Associates earned United States$81 million for its work. A United States Air Force retiree, Jessen and James Mitchell were hired in 2002 by the Central Intelligence Agency to design the so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" program The objectives of the program were not just to obtain intelligence, but to also break down detainees in order to get them to be compliant and submissive to authority.
In 2005, Jessen and Mitchell formed a company called Mitchell Jessen and Associates, with offices in Spokane and Virginia.
He resigned as bishop one week later. On December 9, 2014 the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released a report confirming the use of torture and SERE tactics in interrogations.
The contractors that developed the "enhanced interrogation techniques" received United States$81 million for their services, out of an original contract worth more than United States$180 million. National Broadcasting Company News identified the contractors, who were referred to in the report via pseudonyms, as Mitchell, Jessen & Associates from Spokane, Washington, which was run by two psychologists, John "Bruce" Jessen and James Mitchell.
The report states that the contractor "developed the list of enhanced interrogation techniques and personally conducted interrogations of some of the Central Intelligence Agency"s most significant detainees using those techniques.
The contractors also evaluated whether the detainees" psychological state allowed for continued use of the techniques, even for some detainees they themselves were interrogating or had interrogated." Mitchell, Jessen & Associates developed a "menu" of 20 enhanced techniques including waterboarding, sleep deprivation, and stress positions. John Rizzo, Central Intelligence Agency acting general counsel, described in his book Company Manitoba, that the techniques were "sadistic and terrifying."
In 2014, The New York Times Editorial board called for the investigation and prosecution of Mitchell and Jessen for their role in developing the torture practices used by the Central Intelligence Agency. In 2015, Human Rights Watch called for the prosecution of Jessen "for alleged direct participation in torture, often applied in ways beyond how it was authorized, but also for role in the initial conspiracy to torture as well.".