Bruce Jessen Character Analysis in Talking to Strangers

Bruce Jessen is a psychologist who worked for the U.S. Air Force’s SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape) program prior to being recruited by the CIA to interrogate KSM. Jessen and James Mitchell’s use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” (EITs) to elicit responses from KSM led to KSM’s first public confession to terrorism-related crimes in 2007. However, the traumatic manner in which Mitchell and Jessen compelled KSM to confess led some officials to doubt the veracity of KSM’s statements.

Bruce Jessen Character Timeline in Talking to Strangers

The timeline below shows where the character Bruce Jessen appears in Talking to Strangers. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

When the CIA recruited Mitchell and Jessen to interrogate KSM, they employed highly controversial techniques called “enhanced interrogation techniques,” or EITs, which... (full context)

2. Prior to their involvement with the CIA, Mitchell and Jessen worked as psychologists for the Air Force’s SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape) program, which trains... (full context)

3. The training exercises Mitchell and Jessen designed for SERE formed the basis of the CIA’s “Enhanced Interrogation” program. Asked to assemble... (full context)

In their interrogations, Mitchell and Jessen strive for compliance—for detainees to volunteer information of their own volition. KSM was a complicated... (full context)

...under stressful circumstances could be misleading and downright deceptive. When Morgan heard about Mitchell and Jessen’s methods, therefore, he was understandably concerned. (full context)

...Qaeda operation in which he’d been involved. The confession was a victory for Mitchell and Jessen. Yet, the question remained: just how much of KSM’s confession was actually true? As Morgan’s... (full context)