John Francis Leso (born August 13, 1966)
[''U.S. Public Records Index'', Vols. 1 & 2 (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.), 2010.] is an American
psychologist
A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and explanation, interpretatio ...
and a major in the
United States Armed Services
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. U.S. federal law names six armed forces: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and the Coast Guard. Since 1949, all of the armed forces, except the C ...
, who is reported to have aided interrogators at
Guantanamo Bay detention camp
The Guantanamo Bay detention camp, also known as GTMO ( ), GITMO ( ), or simply Guantanamo Bay, is a United States military prison within Naval Station Guantanamo Bay (NSGB), on the coast of Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. It was established in 2002 by p ...
.
[
] Leso co-authored an October 2002 memo which "recommended physically and psychologically harmful and abusive detention and interrogation tactics", which were used on
Mohammed al-Qahtani
Mohammed Mani Ahmad al-Qahtani (; sometimes transliterated as al-Kahtani; born November 19, 1975) is a Saudi citizen who was detained as an al-Qaeda operative for 20 years in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps in Cuba. Qahtani a ...
, the alleged
20th hijacker
The 20th hijacker is a possible additional terrorist in the September 11 attacks of 2001 who, for unknown reasons, was unable to participate. The 20th hijacker, though not present during the actual attacks, is said to have been deeply involved i ...
.
[ Information on Al-Qahtani's interrogation became public when a classified interrogation log was leaked to ''Time''. Leso's name was included in the leaked log, which triggered debate in the medical community about the role of psychologists in supporting military interrogations. Debate is ongoing about the effectiveness and ethics of the interrogation techniques used with Al-Qhatani, as many consider them torture. Although some activist psychologists have criticized Leso for "directing" the interrogation of Al-Qhatani, scrutiny of public sources on the matter reveals that Leso's actual role and duties remain unclear.
]
Academic career
Leso attended Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...
. Upon completion of his undergraduate degree Leso was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant. He received a Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...
in psychology from SUNY, in Albany New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
New York may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* ...
, in 1995.
Professional career
See also
* Larry C. James
*Nuremberg Code
The Nuremberg Code () is a set of research ethics, ethical research principles for human experimentation created by the court in ''Doctors' trial, U.S. v Brandt'', one of the Subsequent Nuremberg trials that were held after the World War II, Seco ...
*Bruce Jessen
John Bruce Jessen (born July 28, 1949) is an American psychologist who, with James Elmer Mitchell, created the so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" that were used in the interrogation and torture of CIA detainees and outlined in the Unit ...
*James Elmer Mitchell
James Elmer Mitchell (born 1952) is an American psychologist and former member of the United States Air Force. From 2002, after his retirement from the military, to 2009, his company Mitchell Jessen and Associates received $81 million on contrac ...
* Behavioral Science Consultation Team
Bibliography
* James, L.C. (2008) ''Fixing Hell: An Army Psychologist Confronts Abu Ghraib''. Grand Central Publishing.
References
External links
Complaints allege psychologists had role in Guantanamo detainee abuseJohn Leso profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leso, John
Living people
21st-century American psychologists
1966 births
20th-century American psychologists