CIA interrogator says Amazon film The Report got waterboarding of accused terrorist wrong

Dr. James Mitchell, 67, a white-bearded former Air Force survival school psychologist contracted by the CIA after al Qaeda hijackers killed nearly 3,000 people, critiqued how the film depicted the waterboarding he conducted against Mohammed in March 2003.

“It seemed to me that it didn’t look like what we were doing at all,” Mitchell testified.

The unique pretrial hearing on Tuesday was marked by disparate features: a supposed “rendition go-bag” and other evidence allegedly pulled from a CIA black site, discussions on whether songs such as Let the Bodies Hit the Floor and Rawhide were played at secretive locations, and a 7.7-magnitude earthquake that sent at least one attorney ducking for cover under a desk.

David Nevin, the gray-haired, bespectacled attorney for Mohammed, 55, told the court the clip from The Report “depicts him being waterboarded and it also depicts him being rectally rehydrated” and said his “purpose in playing it harkens back to” testimony Mitchell had previously given.

But Col. W. Shane Cohen, the presiding judge, pointed out that Mitchell had denied having anything to do with the so-called “rectal rehydration” of Mohammed. Prosecutor Jeffrey Groharing argued, “This is a waste of time … we shouldn’t spend it watching movies or asking witnesses about their review of movies.”

“If you want to show him the clip of waterboarding, then you can show him that and ask him how similar it was, but not the clip of rectal rehydration,” the judge ruled. “But clearly, with waterboarding, he has personal knowledge.”

The spliced clips from the movie showed two separate waterboarding sessions carried out by Mitchell and his future business partner, Dr. Bruce Jessen, who will testify later this week. In the first clip, Yankee Doodle blares as Mitchell and Jessen, with black masks over their faces, pour water onto Mohammed from a large bucket while one counts to 17 and another holds a rag over Mohammed’s face. The men shout, “It will stop if you talk,” and “Where is the next attack?,” as Mohammed struggles and yells something.

The second clip is similar, with the same black masks and white bucket.

“Who are the operatives inside the U.S.?” Mitchell or Jessen asks.

“Issa al Britaini,” Mohammed responds.

“Where is the next attack?” one man follows up.

“Montana,” the terrorist says.

Nevin claimed, “The reason I played that was to see how it compares to what you did.”

“You’ve got some fat guy playing me,” Mitchell quipped about British-born actor Douglas Hodge, adding of the waterboarding depiction, “I wouldn’t characterize that as what we did at all.”

“First off, we didn’t wear masks … We didn’t use buckets … It’s actually poured out of a 1-liter saline bottle … and the idea that there are just buckets of water is wrong,” Mitchell said. “No one was manhandling his head … and I don’t recall any conversation shouting about an individual like that.”

Mitchell said Mohammed “didn’t scream, grunt, or do anything” and “was actually surprisingly good at maintaining calm, and he’d even count down with his fingers,” as Mitchell claimed Mohammed would use the cutoff sign at around 20 seconds.

Mitchell also said information is usually obtained during “bridging questions” before or after waterboarding, not in the middle of it.

“We’re highly suspicious of anything they tell us during waterboarding,” Mitchell testified.

On top of this, the third man who assisted in the waterboarding of Mohammed, known in court as “NZ7” but dubbed “the preacher” in Mitchell’s 2016 book Enhanced Interrogation, does not appear in the film’s waterboarding sessions. Mitchell previously testified that “NZ7” was an “acolyte” of “NX2,” whom Mitchell also called “the new sheriff” and criticized for abusing detainees.

The alleged 9/11 mastermind was captured in Pakistan on March 1, 2003. On March 2, he was sent to a black site dubbed “Cobalt,” believed to be in Afghanistan. Four days later, he was sent to another black site code-named “Blue,” thought to be in Poland. The Senate Intelligence Committee report shows that a physician, along with “NX2,” ordered the “rectal rehydration” of Mohammed at Cobalt, prior to his transfer to “Blue,” where Mitchell was located.

“I thought it was a lie when I first heard about it … it sounds crazy to me,” Mitchell said, condemning what “NX2” had done. “If KSM would’ve reported that to me, I would’ve reported it, and that physician wouldn’t have been allowed to participate in any other EIT’s, and the New Sheriff hopefully would’ve been removed sooner.”

Mitchell, Jessen, and “NZ7” waterboarded Mohammed during 15 sessions involving at least 183 water pours later in March 2003.

During the hearing, Nevin also referenced a host of evidence which FBI technicians had brought in boxes into the courtroom.

“I’m interested to see what’s about to happen,” Mitchell said.

“Don’t be alarmed by these gloves,” Nevin said as he carefully handled the items that he said came from a black site dubbed “Site A.”

He showed Mitchell plastic white chairs, a blue mattress, hand-held controllers, a camera casing, an audio or video switch, a noise machine, and a bathroom scale before then showing Mitchell a series of chains varying in length and width. The psychologist said some of the chains seemed of a familiar make.

Nevin questioned Mitchell about a black duffel bag, which the lawyer suggested was “some kind of go bag for a rendition.” It contained a dark zip jumpsuit, black slippers, a black sweatsuit, a black balaclava, duct tape, diapers, a harness, and handcuffs.

“Did you travel on any rendition flights?” Nevin asked.

“I traveled on several,” Mitchell said. “That certainly looks like a thing that could’ve been used in a rendition, yes.”

Other items displayed by Nevin included a black mask, a blue plastic tarp, and a tall plastic bottle of water, as well as a dark sweatshirt and sweatpants that Mitchell said were similar to those given to detainees.

“Pictures will be entered into evidence in lieu of the exhibits at this point,” the judge said at the end of that line of questioning. “And the exhibits will remain in custody of the FBI.”

During Nevin’s questioning, he was given permission to play five seconds of Drowning Pool’s 2001 rock hit Let the Bodies Hit the Floor, which he said had been played at CIA black sites.

“I definitely don’t remember that,” Mitchell said after listening to a brief bit of the song. “That is tremendously annoying. I think I’d remember it.”

Jim Harrington, attorney for al Qaeda’s Ramzi bin al Shibh, asked Mitchell if he’d ever heard Rawhide (the theme song for the 1960s show with the same name) played at any black sites. “I don’t recall that,” Mitchell said. He told Harrington he didn’t know the song from the 1980 film The Blues Brothers, either.

Harrington then displayed a CIA document stating that “before each session, bin al Shibh’s Rawhide song was played before security personnel entered.” The defense lawyer argued this was to create a “Pavlovian response” while Mitchell said it was more likely similar to a “doorbell.”

“Seems like an odd doorbell, doesn’t it?” Harrington said.

“Oh yeah,” Mitchell replied.

A 7.7-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Cuba shook the island during the afternoon’s proceedings.

“Is there a problem?” the judge asked as the courtroom vibrated.

“There’s an earthquake,” said Cheryl Bormann, who represents accused 9/11 plotter Walid bin Attash.

“If anyone would like to get under their desk, they are welcome to,” the judge said.

James Connell, a lawyer for Mohammed’s nephew Ammar al Baluchi, got under his desk just in case.

Guantanamo Bay’s base commander relayed a tsunami warning but did not notify the media operations center nor the teams in the courtroom.