Finally Torture Architects and Psychologists are Fired

According to ABC news blotter post the two psychologists and architects who helped develop the program of torture for the CIA, and were paid very well for their time doing it, were fired finally.

I say what took so long. If the program of torture stopped in 2004 or so, why were we still paying these guys up till 2009? And at the stunning rate of $1,000 a day. EACH. Yes, that's right, I didn't stutter on that one.

According to the story, the phone number has been disconnected and the address listed for the offices of these guys is now empty. They have also refused to be interviewed and have issued no statements.

Their names are Dr. James Mitchell and Dr. Bruce Jessen, and also according to the "Blotter":

Their firings came during a purge by CIA Director Leon Panetta of all contractors involved in the interrogation program. In early April, Panetta told CIA employees that contractors involved in the interrogation program and secret prisons were being "promptly terminated."

-snip-

The company had at least 120 employees as of 2007, according to a recent Senate investigation. One former military psychologist tells ABC News that Mitchell & Jessen charged the CIA roughly $500,000 a year for their services. It was this source's understanding that the money was largely tax-free and did not include expenses, which the agency also paid for.

This is just part of the legacy of the Bush/Cheney Mis-Administration. So lets see, $500,000 a year for 8 years, let me do some math here.. That looks like $4,000,000 tax free. Plus expenses, of which I am sure there were many. Look at that again.. That is 4 MILLION Dollars.. But, for what they did, which was stand around and tell people what to do, how to torture people. I would say that was good money. Especially when you take into consideration that they didn't even know what they were doing.

In April, ABC News reported that neither Mitchell nor Jessen, both former military psychologists, who were part of a military training program that taught U.S. soldiers how to withstand harsh interrogation techniques, had any experience in conducting actual interrogations before they were hired by the CIA. The two, and later with additional employees, however, recommended so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques."

Air Force Colonel Steve Kleinman, a former colleague of both Mitchell and Jessen and an expert interrogator, told ABC News that the two knew virtually nothing about conducting interrogations.

"They went to two individuals who had no interrogation experience," said Col. Kleinman. "They are not interrogators."

I, for one am glad these two are off the government payroll, but I have to ask one question.

What the hell took so damn long?