John B. Jessen
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Page 1 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON AT SPOKANE - - - SULEIMAN ABDULLAH : SALIM, MOHOMED AHMED : DOCKET NO. BEN SOUD, OBAID ULLAH : (as personal : 2:15-CV-286-JLQ representative of GUL : RAHMAN), : : Plaintiffs, : : v. : : JAMES ELMER MITCHELL : and JOHN "BRUCE" : JESSEN, : : Defendants. : - - - Friday, January 20, 2017 - - - Videotaped deposition of JOHN BRUCE JESSEN, taken pursuant to notice, was held at the law offices of Blank Rome, 130 N. 18th Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103, beginning at 10:07 AM, on the above date, before Constance S. Kent, a Registered Professional Reporter and Notary Public in and for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. * * * MAGNA LEGAL SERVICES (866) 624-6221 www.MagnaLS.com Page 2 1 A P P E A R A N C E S: 2 GIBBONS, PC BY: LAWRENCE LUSTBERG, ESQUIRE 3 DANIEL McGRADY, ESQUIRE AVRAM D. FREY, ESQUIRE 4 KATE E. JANUKOWICZ, ESQUIRE One Gateway Center 5 Newark, New Jersey 07102 973.596.4731 6 Counsel for Plaintiffs 7 AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION BY: STEVEN M. WATT, ESQUIRE 8 DROR LADIN, ESQUIRE 125 Broad Street, 18th Floor 9 New York, New York 10004 212.519.7870 10 [email protected] [email protected] 11 Counsel for Plaintiffs 12 BLANK ROME, LLP BY: JAMES T. SMITH, ESQUIRE 13 JEFFREY ROSENTHAL, ESQUIRE 18th and Cherry Streets 14 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103 215.569.5550 15 [email protected] [email protected] 16 Counsel for Defendants 17 BLANK ROME BY: HENRY F. SCHUELKE, III, ESQUIRE 18 1825 Eye Street, NW Washington, DC 20006-5403 19 202.772.5815 [email protected] 20 Counsel for Defendants 21 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE BY: ANDREW I. WARDEN, ESQUIRE 22 20 Massachusetts Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20530 23 202.616.5084 [email protected] 24 Counsel for US Government Page 3 1 APPEARANCES, continued 2 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE BY: RICHARD O. HATCH, ESQUIRE 3 1600 Defense Pentagon Room 3B688 4 Washington, DC 20301-1600 202.761.0543 5 Counsel for CIA 6 ALSO PRESENT: 7 Hina Shamsi, Director National Security Project, ACLU 8 Joseph Sweeney, Esquire 9 CIA Office of General Counsel 10 Cody Smith, Esquire CIA Office of General Counsel 11 Heather Walcott, Esquire 12 CIA Office of General Counsel 13 Megan Beckman, Paralegal CIA Office of General Counsel 14 Antoinette Shiner, Information 15 Review Officer, CIA 16 Thomas Ellis, Senior Program Analyst Joint Personnel Recovery Agency 17 Benjamin Neate, Video Specialist 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Page 4 1 - - - I N D E X 2 - - - 3 Testimony of: JOHN BRUCE JESSEN 4 By Mr. Lavin 14 5 - - - 6 E X H I B I T S - - - 7 NO. DESCRIPTION PAGE 8 Exhibit 1 CIA Classification 11 9 Guidance, Bates USA 22 through 24 10 Exhibit 2 Department of Defense 11 11 Classification Guidance, Bates USA 2169 through 12 2170 13 Exhibit 26 Resume for Bruce Jessen, 28 LLC, Bates US 1901 14 through 1905 15 Exhibit 27 Report of the Committee 54 on Armed Services of the 16 United States Senate, Inquiry into the 17 Treatment of Detainees in US Custody 18 Exhibit 9 Article entitled 70 19 Recognizing and Developing 20 Countermeasures to Al-Qaeda Resistance to 21 Interrogation Techniques: A 22 Resistance Training Perspective 23 Exhibit 28 Email exchange, Bates US 99 24 1788 through 1792 Page 5 1 NO. DESCRIPTION NO. 2 Exhibit 17 Document, Bates USA 1109 117 through 111 3 Exhibit 18 Document, Bates USA 1770 141 4 through 1172 5 Exhibit 4 Interrogating the Enemy, 157 by James E. Mitchell, 6 Bates MJ22577 through 22942 7 Exhibit 20 Fax, Generic Description 165 8 of the Process, Bates DOJ OLC 1126 through 9 1144 10 Exhibit 29 Communication, Subject: 170 Eyes Only - Lessons for 11 the Future, Bates US 1610 through 1615 12 Exhibit 30 Executive Summary, Bates 174 13 US 1915 through 1922 14 Exhibit 31 Memorandum, Bates US 192 1047 through 1053 15 Exhibit 32 Cable, Eyes only - 207 16 Noncompliance of Gul Rahman, Bates 1072 17 through 1074 18 Exhibit 33 Cable, Subject: Eyes 230 only - Gul Rahman admits 19 his identity 20 Exhibit 34 Cable marked Eyes Only - 237 For CTC/UBL - Mental 21 Status Examination and Recommended 22 Interrogation Plan For Gul Rahman, Bates US 23 1056 through 1058 24 Page 6 1 NO. DESCRIPTION NO. 2 Exhibit 23 Email dated 5/28/03, 248 Bates USA 1588 3 Exhibit 35 Email, Subject: EIT 260 4 briefing for Sec State, labeled US Bates 1175 5 Exhibit 21 CIA Comments on the 274 6 Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Report 7 on the Rendition, Detention and 8 Interrogation Program 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Page 7 1 - - - 2 DEPOSITION SUPPORT INDEX 3 - - - 4 5 Direction to Witness Not to Answer 6 Page Line Page Line Page Line 7 None 8 9 10 Request for Production of Documents 11 Page Line Page Line Page Line 12 None 13 14 15 Stipulations 16 Page Line Page Line Page Line 17 None 18 19 20 Question Marked 21 Page Line Page Line Page Line 22 None 23 24 Page 8 1 THE VIDEOGRAPHER: We are 2 now on the record. 3 This begins DVD No. 1 in the 4 deposition of John Bruce Jessen in 5 the matter of Salim versus James 6 Elmer Mitchell and John Bruce 7 Jessen in the United States 8 District Court, Eastern District 9 of Washington. 10 Today is January 20th, 2017, 11 and the time is 10:07 AM. 12 This deposition is being 13 taken at 130 North 18th Street, 14 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the 15 request of Gibbons, PC. 16 The videographer is Benjamin 17 Neate of Magna Legal Services, and 18 the court reporter is Connie Kent 19 of Magna Legal Services. 20 All counsel and parties 21 present will be noted on the 22 stenographic record. 23 Will the court reporter 24 please swear in the witness. Page 9 1 JOHN BRUCE JESSEN, having 2 been first duly sworn, was 3 examined and testified as follows: 4 MR. WARDEN: Good morning, 5 I'm Andrew Warden from the US 6 Department of Justice and I 7 represent the United States 8 Government. 9 On behalf of the United 10 States Government, I have with me 11 here today Joseph Sweeney, 12 attorney with the CIA Office of 13 General Counsel, Cody Smith, an 14 attorney with the CIA Office of 15 General Counsel, Heather Walcott, 16 an attorney with the CIA Office of 17 General Counsel, Megan Beckman, 18 paralegal with the CIA Office of 19 the General Counsel, Antoinette 20 Shiner, Information Review Officer 21 with the CIA. 22 And on behalf of the 23 Department of Defense, Richard 24 Hatch, an attorney with the DOD, Page 10 1 Office of General Counsel, and 2 Thomas Ellis, senior program 3 analyst for the Joint Personnel 4 Recovery Agency. 5 The United States Government 6 is not a party to this case, but 7 we are here today in order to 8 represent the interests of the 9 United States. 10 We understand the questions 11 in this deposition will cover 12 topics related to Dr. Jessen's 13 career with the Department of 14 Defense and later as a contractor 15 for the CIA. 16 Given the sensitive nature 17 of the positions that Dr. Jessen 18 held with these agencies and the 19 information he acquired with those 20 positions, we are here today to 21 protect against the unauthorized 22 disclosure of classified, 23 protected or privileged Government 24 information. Page 11 1 Prior to this deposition, 2 the Government has provided the 3 parties, plaintiffs and 4 defendants, with classification 5 guidance from the CIA and the 6 Department of Defense. I believe 7 it's marked as Exhibits 1 and 2 8 for the record. 9 I have copies here. 10 Additional copies. 11 MR. SMITH: Are these, 12 Mr. Warden, the same documents we 13 marked as 1 and 2 at 14 Dr. Mitchell's deposition? 15 MR. WARDEN: Yes, they are. 16 MR. SMITH: Madam Court 17 Reporter, did you bring the 18 exhibits? 19 THE REPORTER: I did. 20 MR. SMITH: Maybe we can get 21 them out and save some time. 22 MR. WARDEN: Okay. So 23 marked as Exhibit 1 is the 24 classification guidance from the Page 12 1 CIA. It's marked as US Bates 2 numbers 22 to 24, with production 3 date of May 20, 2016. It provides 4 a list of categories of 5 information about the CIA's former 6 detention and interrogation 7 program that remains classified 8 and a list of categories of 9 information about the program 10 that's now unclassified. 11 Exhibit 2 is the Department 12 of Defense guidance. It's marked 13 as US Bates Nos. 2169 through 14 2170, with a production date of 15 January 14, 2017. It provides a 16 list of categories of information 17 about DOD's Survival, Evasion, 18 Resistance and Escape program that 19 remains classified, and a list of 20 categories of information about 21 that program that is now 22 unclassified. 23 At the outset, we would 24 issue an instruction to the Page 13 1 witness, Dr. Jessen, that in 2 response to any question, the 3 Government instructs the witness 4 not to answer by reference to any 5 of the information identified as 6 classified in the guidance that we 7 have provided, and we will reserve 8 our right to object to any 9 question posed to Dr.