‘Architect’ of CIA Program Rips Torture Report: ‘Partisan Pile of Bullsh*t’

One of the key sticking points for some Republicans about the torture report released by the Senate Intelligence Committee yesterday is that all the Republicans on the committee rebuked it, thus meaning to some that the report is naught more but a partisan witch hunt.

One of those people is James Mitchell, reported to be the “architect” of the CIA’s program. Mitchell was a psychologist who came up with some of the harsh interrogation methods revealed in the report. He defended himself against the Senate committee’s investigation earlier this year, calling into question whether the Senate committee honestly thinks everyone at the CIA was systematically lying and “10 years later a Senate staffer was able to put it together.”

So after the report came out this week, CNN reached out to Mitchell for his reaction. He was to the point:

“It’s a partisan pile of bullshit…

“The suggestion that the men and women of the CIA who put their lives on the line after 9/11 lied to the Senate, lied to the President and used bogus intelligence for some nefarious reason that’s unknown. People gave their lives to protect the American people. And the last thing the Democrats want to do as they leave office is to smear their memory. It’s despicable.”

Mitchell is not referred to by name in the report this week, though there is a reference to two psychologists who developed the program and were paid $80 million.

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

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