# Shouldn't Bruce Jessen and Jim Mitchell lose their licenses? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 13, 2014, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-bruce-jessen-and-jim-mitchell-lose-their-licenses/707140 "2014-12-13T17:26:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-bruce-jessen-and-jim-mitchell-lose-their-licenses/707140/1 "2014-12-13T17:26:58Z")
Googling seems to turn up no indication that this is in the works, though I would have assumed whoever’s in charge of licensing psychologists would be jumping at the chance to disown these two. (The two named people are the ones who were paid $81 million to advise the CIA on how to torture people.) Am I wrong to think that professional ethics were seriously breached in this case? ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-bruce-jessen-and-jim-mitchell-lose-their-licenses/707140/2 "2014-12-13T18:08:13Z")
I’ve been wondering about this as well. ---
**Author:** ![blue\_infinity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_infinity/32/2817_2.png) [@blue\_infinity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blue_infinity)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-bruce-jessen-and-jim-mitchell-lose-their-licenses/707140/3 "2014-12-13T18:26:20Z")
It looks like there was a [complaint](http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news/2011/feb/25/bc-tx-psychologist-waterboarding/) made about Mitchell (and others) but it went nowhere. > [@](#): > > The Texas State Board of Examiners of Psychologists dismissed the complaint against Jim Mitchell after considering the matter at a meeting Feb. 10, according to documents obtained Friday by The Associated Press. > > The board said there wasn’t enough evidence to prove Mitchell violated its rules. Former U.S. intelligence officials have said he was involved in waterboarding two suspected terror suspects in overseas prisons. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-bruce-jessen-and-jim-mitchell-lose-their-licenses/707140/4 "2014-12-13T19:17:30Z")
“Here’s $81 million. You can never work in this field again.” ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-bruce-jessen-and-jim-mitchell-lose-their-licenses/707140/5 "2014-12-13T21:32:15Z")
I’d sure like to know exactly who decided their expertise was worth $81 million. Didn’t their checks have to be signed by someone? ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-bruce-jessen-and-jim-mitchell-lose-their-licenses/707140/6 "2014-12-13T21:52:28Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > Googling seems to turn up no indication that this is in the works, though I would have assumed whoever’s in charge of licensing psychologists would be jumping at the chance to disown these two. > > (The two named people are the ones who were paid $81 million to advise the CIA on how to torture people.) > > Am I wrong to think that professional ethics were seriously breached in this case? I don’t understand how they weren’t stripped of their licenses long ago. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-bruce-jessen-and-jim-mitchell-lose-their-licenses/707140/7 "2014-12-13T22:14:38Z")
Assuming we can’t torture them, revoking their licenses is among the least of things we should do. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-bruce-jessen-and-jim-mitchell-lose-their-licenses/707140/8 "2014-12-13T22:33:03Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Assuming we can’t torture them, revoking their licenses is among the least of things we should do. Can we just ask them why they did it using enhanced methods of asking? ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2014, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-bruce-jessen-and-jim-mitchell-lose-their-licenses/707140/9 "2014-12-14T19:45:19Z")
> [@blue\_infinity](#): > > It looks like there was a [complaint](http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news/2011/feb/25/bc-tx-psychologist-waterboarding/) made about Mitchell (and others) but it went nowhere. Oh. Texas. Makes sense, then. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2014, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-bruce-jessen-and-jim-mitchell-lose-their-licenses/707140/10 "2014-12-14T20:04:13Z")
$ 81 millions. I had no clue torturing people paid that well. Couldn’t they have hired qualified immigrant workers for cheap instead? As per a recent IMHO thread, that’s when you regret there isn’t a god so that some people would have their comeuppance. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-bruce-jessen-and-jim-mitchell-lose-their-licenses/707140/11 "2014-12-15T03:59:14Z")
To elaborate on what **blue infinity** posted – [From today’s LA Times](http://www.latimes.com/world/afghanistan-pakistan/la-fg-torture-psychologists-20141214-story.html#page=1): [QUOTE=Los Angeles Times] Joseph Margulies, a Chicago lawyer who represented Zubaydah, tried to get Mitchell’s and Jessen’s psychologist licenses revoked after their role was first revealed several years ago. He filed petitions in Texas and Idaho, where they had obtained their licenses. In a phone interview, Margulies said he was unsuccessful, in part, because he could not produce a client who had been harmed. Most who underwent the “enhanced” interrogations remain imprisoned on the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. [/quote] ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-bruce-jessen-and-jim-mitchell-lose-their-licenses/707140/12 "2014-12-15T06:47:42Z")
That seems overpriced to me. When is a consultation fee in eight figures? ETA: I wonder if they were in fact paid that much on the expectation that they would never be able to work legitimately again. > [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > “Here’s $81 million. You can never work in this field again.”