Charlie Wise
Died2003
NationalityAmerican
Other names
  • The New Sheriff
  • The Preacher
  • NX2
OccupationCIA official
Known forplayed a role in the CIA's torture program

Charlie Wise was a Central Intelligence Agency official who played a role in the agency's torture program.[1][2][3] Prior to his resignation, in 2003, Wise was the CIA's Chief of Interrogations.

Wise is said to have been one of the few individuals who were officially authorized to use the torture technique known as Waterboarding.[2][3]

In December 2014, when the Senate's Intelligence Committee released a 600-page summary of its report on the CIA's use of torture, The Washington Post reported that Wise had called the program a “train [wreck] waiting to happen”. They reported he said “I intend to get the hell off the train before it happens.” According to The Washington Post, he subsequently voluntarily left the program, and resigned from the CIA.

However, on January 25, 2020, while testifying before a Guantanamo Military Commission over his own role in the torture program, outside psychologist James Mitchell said Wise was more extreme than he was, that he went far beyond the authorized techniques.[3] Mitchell testified that he was one of the whistleblowers who reported Wise to the CIA's Inspector General. Mitchell testified that CIA HQ reassigned Wise after receiving those reports.

Mitchell testified that, when he arrived at the torture sites, Wise referred to himself as "the New Sheriff", symbolic of Wise's plans to take over the program.[3]

According to The Washington Post, Wise had played a role in interrogations that used torture, in Beirut.[2] According to The Guardian Wise had taught The Contras how to torture, in Nicaragua.[3] According to Vice magazine Wise was responsible for introducing "anal feeding", a technique tantamount to anal rape, into interrogations.[4]

Wise suffered a fatal heart attack weeks after his resignation.[2][3][4]

References

  1. ↑ Katherine Hawkins (2015-09-15). "Re: Wrongful classification of information regarding CIA torture, in violation of Executive Order 13526". OpenTheGovernment.org. pp. 13–16. Retrieved 2020-01-26. Charlie Wise is not identified by name or pseudonym in the Senate torture report, but is referred to by title as the CIA's chief of interrogations. According to press reports, Wise was forced to retire from the CIA in 2003, and died of a heart attack the same year.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Greg Miller; Adam Goldman; Julie Tate (2014-12-09). "Senate report on CIA program details brutality, dishonesty". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 2014-12-10. Retrieved 2020-01-26. At times, senior CIA operatives voiced deep misgivings. In early 2003, a CIA officer in the interrogation program described it as a 'train [wreck] waiting to happen' and that 'I intend to get the hell off the train before it happens.' The officer, identified by former colleagues as Charlie Wise, subsequently retired and died in 2003. He had been picked for the job despite being reprimanded for his role in other troubled interrogation efforts in the 1980s in Beirut, former officials said.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Julian Borger (2020-10-25). "Chilling role of 'the Preacher' confirmed at CIA waterboarding hearing in Guantánamo". The Guardian. Guantanamo Bay detention camp. Retrieved 2020-01-26. In the courtroom this week, the interrogations chief has been referred to by the code NX2. Mitchell calls him the "new sheriff", but it has been reported his real name was Charlie Wise, who had honed his craft carrying out interrogations for the Contra rebels in Nicaragua in the 1980s.
  4. 1 2 Jason Leopold (2015-05-19). "The Watchdog, the Whistleblower, and the Secret CIA Torture Report". Vice magazine. Retrieved 2020-01-26. Many of the Panetta Review's findings about misattributed intelligence and the brutal treatment of detainees using unauthorized techniques singled out the CIA's chief of interrogations, Charlie Wise, who authorized the rectal feeding of Khan and other CIA captives, intelligence officials told VICE News. Wise — who was not named in the Senate's report — was the subject of at least one scathing complaint filed by another interrogator with the inspector general during the interrogation program's early days. The complaint remains classified. Wise died of a heart attack after retiring from the CIA.
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