Officials invited media onto Fairchild Air Force Base on Friday to distance the Spokane-area base from CIA interrogation techniques. Two retired Fairchild psychologists are known to have moved on to create interrogation methods that got criticism in a federal report this week.
Colonel Jon Duncan is commander of the base’s SERE school, the Air Force’s primary survival school.
Duncan: “We had nothing to do with the activities of those folks, and we actually have no comment because those folks were not part of this organization, nor do we conduct any training that has anything to do with interrogation training.”
James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen were psychologists in the SERE school before they moved on to work as CIA consultants after the 9/11 attacks. When asked whether Senate investigators came on base in recent years, Duncan says he is unaware of that happening.
The SERE school trains about 6,000 airmen each year from around the country. Military instructors use facilities at Fairchild Air Force Base and across the state of Washington for survival training.
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