John Leso

Who is John Leso?

Major John Francis Leso is an American psychologist and officer in the United States Armed Services, who is reported to have aided JTF-GTMO interrogators in their interrogations. Dr. Leso is notable for his consultation on the interrogation of Mohammed al-Qahtani, the alleged 20th 9/11 hijacker. Information on Al-Qahtani's interrogation became public when a classified interrogation log was leaked to Time. The identity of the whistleblower remains unknown. 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.