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Thursday鈥檚 hearing in Afghan national Mohammed Jawad鈥檚 case brought stunning testimony on serious abuse he suffered at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan as a teenager, as well as military psychologists鈥� role in crafting abusive interrogation methods for use on Jawad and other prisoners at Guant谩namo Bay.

On Thursday Special Agent Angela Birt, an Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID) investigator who investigated , took the stand. Her investigation resulted in confessions from 18 military police for their role in abusing prisoners and findings of probable cause to charge 27 officers for the homicides. Birt鈥檚 investigation led her to Jawad because he had been imprisoned at Bagram at the time of the two homicides. Her investigation also uncovered a widespread pattern of abuse that corroborates Jawad鈥檚 claims of mistreatment at Bagram prison.

Birt testified that the types of abuse Jawad told her he suffered鈥攂eing forced to stand for long periods of time in stress positions; forced sleep deprivation; being hit, kicked and beaten; being shackled to the door of his cell; and being hooded and shackled with hand irons, leg irons and a waist chain while moved and in one case pushed down the stairs鈥攎irrored other Bagram detainees鈥� claims. She also said that Jawad鈥檚 claim that he heard the cries and screams of other detainees was a 鈥渇airly common鈥� claim of other prisoners locked in isolation who heard other prisoners 鈥渃rying for their parents and begging for the beatings to stop鈥� during interrogations nearby.

Birt testified that the period of time Jawad was at Bagram鈥攖he same period in which these two homicides occurred and the period chronicled in the documentary film Taxi to the Dark Side 鈥斺�渨as the worst period of abuse I鈥檝e ever seen鈥� in the 2,000 cases she's investigated in her 18-year career at CID.

The methods Birt uncovered at Bagram were part of a menu of abusive Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) interrogation techniques also used on prisoners at Guant谩namo Bay. Thursday鈥檚 hearing in Jawad鈥檚 case brought attention to the role of military psychologists belonging to Behavioral Science Consultation Teams (BSCTs), known as 鈥淏iscuit teams,鈥� in developing and refining these abusive techniques for use at Guant谩namo Bay. Since 2002 BSCT psychologists have evaluated prisoners鈥� fears and psychological weaknesses to craft individualized blueprints for torture and other mistreatment, which they passed on to the interrogators. For instance, a Guant谩namo psychiatrist advised interrogators to by deliberately keeping him almost totally in the dark.

Earlier media reports (see , , and , and a article revealed, and recent revelations from a , that military psychologists contributed to the development of these abusive interrogation methods.

Sadly, Thursday鈥檚 hearing did not add much to the public record on the workings of the BSCT program at Guant谩namo Bay. The BSCT psychologist, "Lt. Col. Z," who was scheduled to testify for the defense today, invoked her right to remain silent鈥攑resumably because she feared recounting her role could incriminate herself in criminal activity. Her testimony would have been the first time a member of the BSCT team had testified in a military commissions hearing.

What we already knew was that leaked Guant谩namo Bay interrogation logs鈥攚hich 鈥攕how that a BSCT psychologist was present during the highly abusive interrogation of Guant谩namo prisoner Mohammed al-Qahtani. (Charges against al-Quatani were suddenly dropped in May, because a trial would have turned the spotlight to the torture he endured at Guant谩namo Bay.) And BSCT psychologists鈥� role in aiding torture has been the subject of much controversy among the American Psychological Association (APA), which is holding a among its members to .

What we did learn Thursday was that, according to Jawad鈥檚 defense attorney Maj. Frakt, in September 2003, 鈥渨hen an interrogator observed Mohammad talking to posters on the wall of the interrogation room and was concerned about his mental health,鈥� instead of calling a mental health professional to care for him, they summoned the BSCT team, whose psychologist made a 鈥渃ruel and heartless assessment and recommendations.鈥� Maj. Frakt called the BSCT psychologist鈥檚 report, which was classified secret and therefore not discussed in detail in the open court session, 鈥渢he most chilling document of all.鈥�

And on Wednesday, Dr. Bruce Menely, the chief medical officer at Guant谩namo Bay, testified that when Jawad tried to hang himself only months later, on Christmas Day 2003, BSCT psychologists鈥攏ot regular medical psychologists鈥攚ere notified of Jawad鈥檚 suicide attempt. In Omar Khadr鈥檚 hearing Wednesday, Khadr鈥檚 defense lawyer Lt. Cmdr. William C. Kuebler noted that, much like in Jawad鈥檚 case, military psychologists have met with Khadr to manipulate him and extract more information from him during interrogations.

During his emotional closing argument Thursday, Maj. Frakt asked, 鈥淲hat has this country come to when a licensed psychologist, a senior officer in the U.S. Armed Forces, someone trained in the art of healing broken hearts and mending broken minds, someone with a duty to do no harm, turns her years of training and education to the art of breaking people, to the intentional devastation of a lonely, homesick teenage boy?鈥�

At the end of her examination of Birt, defense attorney Katharine Doxakis asked Birt whether her resignation from the military was because she had become disillusioned with the military after seeing the results of her Bagram abuse investigation. The prosecution鈥檚 immediate objection was sustained, and Birt never got to answer the question.

If, as implied by the defense, Birt鈥檚 resignation from the military was a stand against torture, why didn鈥檛 Guant谩namo鈥檚 military鈥檚 psychologists do the same?