Texas psychologist Jim Cox filed a complaint against former CIA contractor and fellow Texas licensee , Dr. James Mitchell on June 17, 2010.  On July 7, 2010, Ohio and New York residents filed separate complaints against former Guantanamo psychologists, Dr. John Leso and Dr. Larry James.

The full complaints, released to the public by the complainants, are available here:

• Texas complaint against Dr. James Mitchell
• Ohio complaint against Dr. Larry James
• New York complaint against Dr. John Leso

James Mitchell

The Texas complaint, drafted by a Northwestern University law clinic and Texas attorney Dicky Gregg, alleges that:

[Dr. Mitchell’s ] transgressions fall into three categories:

• First, to achieve his ultimate plan of implementing a brutal interrogation and torture regime, Dr. Mitchell misrepresented his professional qualifications and experience to the Central Intelligence Agency. He also placed his own career and financial aspirations above the safety of others.

• Second, Dr. Mitchell designed this torture regime only by ignoring the complete lack of a scientific basis for the regime‘s safety and—assuming its safety—its effectiveness. In doing so, he failed to take reasonable steps to ensure the safety of others.

• Third, and most ominously, Dr. Mitchell himself tortured prisoners held in U.S. custody and directly supervised others who engaged in torture at his direction.

Larry James

Said Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic, counsel for Ohio complainants Michael Reese, Dr. Trudy Bond, Rev. Colin Bossen and Josie Setzler:

… Ohio-licensee Dr. Larry C. James [is the] former Chief Psychologist of the intelligence command at the U.S. Naval Station in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Despite the prison’s record of torture during his tenure, Dr. James obtained an Ohio psychology license in 2008 and currently holds the influential post of Dean at Wright State University’s School of Professional Psychology in Dayton.

According to the Ohio complaint, for several months in 2003, and from 2007-2008, Dr. James was the senior psychologist of the Guantánamo BSCT, a small but influential group of mental health professionals whose job it was to advise on and participate in the interrogations, and to help create an environment designed to break down prisoners.

During his tenure at the prison, boys and men were threatened with rape and death for themselves and their family members; sexually, culturally, and religiously humiliated; forced naked; deprived of sleep; subjected to sensory deprivation, over-stimulation, and extreme isolation; short-shackled into stress positions for hours; and physically assaulted. The evidence indicates that abuse of this kind was systemic, that BSCT health professionals played an integral role in its planning and practice, and that Dr. James, in his position of authority, at minimum knew or should have known it was being inflicted. [Read full press release here]

John Leso

Said the Center for Justice Accountability, counsel for New York complainant, Dr. Steven Reisner:

… the Center for Justice and Accountability … call[ed] for an investigation of Dr. John Francis Leso for his participation in abusive interrogation and torture, and for revocation of his psychologist’s license on that basis. …

Dr. Leso, a Major in the U.S. Army, led the first team of mental health professionals tasked with supporting interrogation operations at the U.S. detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The complaint alleges that Dr. Leso violated professional standards for New York psychologists when he recommended a series of escalating physically and psychologically abusive interrogation tactics to be used on detainees, personally supervised interrogations where his tactics were used, and actually participated in the application of these tactics. Many of the techniques and conditions that Dr. Leso helped put in place were applied to men and boys held at Guantánamo and eventually to detainees held in U.S. custody in Iraq and Afghanistan. [Read full press release here]

The full complaints, released to the public by the complainants, are available here:

• Texas complaint against Dr. James Mitchell
• Ohio complaint against Dr. Larry James
• New York complaint against Dr. John Leso