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Union Minister of Labour and Employment <keyword id="19906409" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="mansukh-mandaviya" source="keywords">Mansukh Mandaviya</keyword> and Chairperson of the Central Board of Trustees, EPF, have given the green light to the proposal for a Centralised <keyword id="23037839" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Pension-Payment-System" source="keywords">Pension Payment System</keyword> (<keyword id="23039389" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="CPPS" source="keywords">CPPS</keyword>) under the Employees' Pension Scheme, 1995. According to the Ministry of Labour and Employment, this initiative represents a major advancement by establishing a national-level centralised system, allowing pension disbursement through any bank or branch across India. Commenting on this development, Mandaviya stated, "The approval of the Centralised Pension Payment System (CPPS) marks a significant milestone in the modernization of the <keyword id="19966712" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="EPFO" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="EPFO" meta.hostid="83" meta.entityid="EPFO">EPFO</keyword>. By enabling pensioners to receive their pensions from any bank, any branch, anywhere in the country, this initiative addresses the long-standing challenges faced by pensioners and ensures a seamless and efficient disbursement mechanism." He added, "This is a crucial step in our ongoing efforts to transform the EPFO into a more robust, responsive, and tech-enabled organisation, committed to serving the needs of its members and pensioners better." The CPPS is expected to benefit over 7.8 million <keyword id="21992385" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="EPS-Pensioners" source="keywords">EPS pensioners</keyword> of EPFO. By leveraging advanced IT and banking technologies, it aims to provide a more efficient and user-friendly experience for pensioners. The CPPS will also ensure seamless pension disbursement across India, eliminating the need to transfer Pension Payment Orders (PPO) when a pensioner relocates or changes their bank or branch. This will be a significant relief for pensioners who move to their hometowns post-retirement. This facility will be launched on January 1, 2025, as part of EPFO's ongoing <keyword id="23015602" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="IT-Modernization" source="keywords">IT modernization</keyword> project, Centralised IT Enabled System (CITES 2.01). In the following phase, CPPS will enable a smooth transition to an <keyword id="20028363" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Aadhaar-based-Payment-System" source="keywords">Aadhaar-based payment system</keyword> (ABPS). The CPPS marks a significant departure from the current decentralised pension disbursement system, where each EPFO Zonal/Regional Office maintains separate agreements with only 3-4 banks. Pensioners will no longer need to visit branches for verification at the start of their pension, as it will be credited immediately upon release. Additionally, EPFO anticipates a significant reduction in disbursement costs with the new system.

EPS Pensioners to get pension from any bank, any branch, anywhere in India from January 1, announces Mansukh Mandaviya

With no relief in sight despite coal stocks running critically low and production disruptions looming across the Indian aluminium sector, the Aluminium Association of India (<keyword id="47439" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="aai" source="Orion">AAI</keyword>) has approached the Ministry of Coal, urging the immediate resumption of adequate coal rakes for the highly power-intensive Aluminium industry. In its representation to the Ministry, the AAI has lauded the combined efforts by the Ministry of Coal and Coal India Limited in reviving domestic coal production, which has helped ease the coal supply crisis for the Power Sector. The steps undertaken by the Ministry increased the overall daily rakes dispatched from 242 rakes/day in September 2021 to 289 rakes/day in December 2021. This has drastically strengthened the coal stocks of the Power Sector to around 10 days, a marked improvement from a mere 2-3 days in the months of September-October last year. However, this has come at enormous cost to the <keyword id="629340" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Captive-Power-Plants" source="Orion">Captive Power Plants</keyword> (CPP)-based industry and the worst impacted is the Indian aluminium industry, which continues to see depleting coal stocks of only 3-4 days, abysmally low compared to the prescribed level of 15 days for the sector. Struggling to cope with this prolonged crisis since the second quarter of this fiscal year, the AAI has now sought the Ministry's support to ensure adequate supplies to the CPPs by earmarking at least 25-30 coal rakes per day to ensure viable industry operations. The need for the CPPs is especially urgent, given that Aluminium production is a continuous process that requires huge volumes of uninterrupted quality power supply. This quantum can only be met only through the in-house CPPs set up by all the aluminium smelters plants to meet this specific requirement. Accordingly, the industry has established Captive Power Plants of 9,400 MW capacity (comprising 34 per cent of the cumulative thermal CPPs capacity domestically) to supply continuous power for Aluminium operations. Even though the Government has reiterated that there is now an improved availability of coal in the country overall, the non-availability of rakes for the non-regulated sectors remains a major concern. Curtailing coal supplies to Captive Power Plants (CPPs) has directly resulted in a coal crunch situation for the Aluminium Sector. Any power interruption in an aluminium smelting operation for more than 2 hours can lead to the freezing of molten aluminium within the smelting pots, which takes a minimum of 6 months to fix, and then almost a year to once again begin yielding the desired metal output, causing enormous production, cost and supply disruptions. With the continued crisis, it will take over a year's time to clear the backlog of rakes, and for the CPPs to build and maintain adequate coal stocks for sustainable operations. The crisis further aggravates with the last-minute cancellation of coal auctions for NRS, giving no relief for the domestic industry to secure coal for manufacturing and CPP-based industries. With the ongoing revival of the economy and increased post-pandemic industrial activity, the CPP-based industries are highly dependent on uninterrupted coal supplies which is vital for sustainable operations and the continued cost-competitiveness of power intensive industries vis-a-vis global players. Any production curtailment by this sector will have cascading effect on consumption and downstream supply chain, thereby adversely impacting the nation's GDP growth. The AAI representation has gone on to highlight that since August 2021, the Non-Regulated Sector has been facing uncertainties in securing sufficient coal rakes for continued operations, with supplies limited to just 40-50 per cent of the required coal. This has led to a backlog of over 6000 coal rakes as most of the available coal and rakes are being diverted to the Power Sector as "Priority Coal Supplies", even despite their coal inventory situation drastically improving. SEE MORE <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/budget/news/budget-2022-nirmala-sitharaman-was-asked-these-10-questions-on-cryptocurrency-employment-inflation-in-india/slidelist/89280855.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink" style="">India’s finance minister was asked these 10 questions and these were her answers</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/meet-maju-kuruvilla-the-new-indian-origin-ceo-of-fintech-startup-bolt/slidelist/89292220.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink" style="">Meet Maju Kuruvilla, the new India-orgin CEO of fintech startup Bolt</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/enterprise/news/more-employees-are-leaving-tech-mahindra-than-tcs-and-wipro/articleshow/89291721.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink" style="">More employees are leaving Tech Mahindra than TCS and Wipro</a>

Coal shortage now at alarming levels, say aluminium producers

Even as supplies of coal are being ramped up at power plants, supplies to non-power sector plants may be kept suspended. Southern Eastern Coalfields, a subsidiary of Coal India has finalised the supply matrix of coal rakes to critical power plants after a meeting held by the Coal Ministry. The power plants where coal rakes will be provided are Rajpura, HRVUNL, <keyword id="201425" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="kawai" source="Orion">Kawai</keyword>, <keyword id="201223" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="akaltara" source="Orion">Akaltara</keyword>, Binjkote, <keyword id="12306176" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="dspm" source="Orion">DSPM</keyword>, Pathad, Sabarmati, GSECL, Uchpanda, Annupur, <keyword id="173653" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="seoni" source="Orion">Seoni</keyword>, MPPGCL, Amrawati, <keyword id="4161340" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="warora" source="Orion">Warora</keyword>, Dhariwal, Tirora, NTPC, and <keyword id="6423479" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="mahagenco" source="Orion">Mahagenco</keyword>. Since the supplies of SECL are yet to be normalised, the supply of coal will be done equitably to these power plants. "Supplies to non-power sector plants may be kept suspended till further information," the SECL said. Meanwhile, the Aluminium Association of India (AAI) has written to Coal India on the alarming situation for the industry due to critical coal shortage and urgency for immediate resumption of coal supplies for survival of domestic industry. Despite untiring efforts of the Coal Ministry and the CIL to support the industry, the current acute coal crunch due to various factors which has created an immensely precarious situation, majorly for the highly power intensive industries like aluminium wherein coal accounts for 40 per cent of the production cost. Aluminium smelting requires uninterrupted quality power supply for production which can be met only through in-house CPPs which operate 24/7 and 365 days, and have signed FSA (Fuel Supply Agreement) with the CIL and its subsidiaries for assured long term coal supply. The recent decisions for stoppage of secured coal supplies and rakes for non-power sector is detrimental for aluminium industry and will jeopardize the sustainability as these continuous process-based plants are not designed for adhoc shut down and start of operations. Any power outage/failure (2 hours or more) results in freezing of molten aluminium in the pots which will lead to shutting down of plant for at least 6 months rendering heavy losses and restart expenses, and once restarted, will take almost a year to get desired metal purity. Aluminium is a sector of strategic importance and an essential commodity for diversified sectors crucial for nation's economy. Huge investment of Rs 1.2 lakh crore ($20 billion) have been made to double the domestic production capacity to 4.1 mtpa to cater to the country's increasing demand. The industry employs one million people and has developed 4000 SMEs in downstream sector. "The entire industry has been brought to a standstill and left with no time to devise any mitigation plan to continue sustainable operations. The coal stocks of operational plants have depleted to alarmingly low critical stocks of 2-3 days, from the level as high as 15 days in the month of April, 21, and plants are forced to operate at reduced power generation with huge risk of closure with threat of loss of huge employment and deterioration of MSMEs," the AAI said. Moreover, the ongoing global aluminium shortage due to supply demand mismatch is also adding to the woes for industry with the current coal situation in India. Adding to the plight of industry, the exponentially rise in coal prices have created a double whammy as the global coal prices have gone up exponentially and are on an upward trend while the ocean freight rates are also at all-time high. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/coal-shortage-many-districts-in-bihar-face-more-than-10-hours-of-power-outage-in-last-few-days/articleshow/86987165.cms">Coal shortage: Many districts in Bihar face more than 10 hours of power outage in last few days</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/android-phones-constantly-send-data-from-pre-installed-apps-even-if-theyve-never-been-used-before/articleshow/86988368.cms">Research reveals Android phones constantly send data from pre-installed apps even if they’ve never been used before</a>

Coal supplies to non-power sector plants may be kept suspended

<ul><li>The company has announced non-working days for 5 of its manufacturing plants “due to continued weak demand”.</li><li>The number of non-working days in a plant is as high as 18 days. </li><li><keyword id="44883" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Maruti-Suzuki">Maruti Suzuki</keyword>, Mahindra &amp; Mahindra, <keyword id="42747" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Tata-Motors">Tata Motors</keyword> and Hero Motocorp had all announced no production days owing to the weak demand.</li></ul>Ashok Leyand is the latest auto manufacturer to announce a production cut. The company said that five of its manufacturing plants have non-working days “due to continued weak demand”. Its plants in Ennore, Hosur and CPPS, Alwar, Bhandara and Pantnagar will have many holidays in September. The number of non-working days in a plant being as high as 18. In August, <keyword id="6357085" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="ashok-leyland">Ashok Leyland</keyword> saw a drop of about 50% in total. Its truck sales alone came down by 70% as compared to the year before. The truck manufacturer isn’t the only one to cut production. In fact, the company joins a long line of automakers – Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra &amp; Mahindra, Tata Motors and Hero Motocorp –who announced no production days. In August, Tata Motors’ sales declined by 58%, Maruti Suzuki’s fell by 33%, Mahindra &amp; Mahindra’s fell by 25% while Honda’s fell by 51%. Passenger vehicle sales in India saw their worst ever month, registering its worth ever month in the last two decades. The first quarter results of most auto companies were equally dismal as their revenues and profits both fell. See Also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/auto-sales-in-august-see-highest-ever-de-growth-in-19-years-as-it-drops-18-7/articleshow/71045315.cms">Auto sales in August see highest ever de-growth in 19 years as it drops 18.7%</a>

Ashok Leyland joins the club of ‘No Production Days’ as its August sales fall by 50%

<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-senate-is-about-to-release-the-cia-torture-report-2014-12">on the CIA's so-called enhanced interrogation techniques</a>&#xa0;that was released on Tuesday said a firm identified only as "Company Y" was responsible for developing many of the tactics used during the questioning of terrorism suspects after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. 
After the release of the details of the Senate investigation, <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/cia-torture-report/cia-paid-torture-teachers-more-80-million-n264756">NBC News reported</a> the company that worked to develop these techniques and received more than $80 million from the government for its work was a firm based in Spokane, Washington, called Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates.
While much of the attention on Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates has focused on the two owners of the company who gave it its name, the firm had seven co-owners. Documents exclusively obtained by Business Insider on Wednesday confirmed the names of these seven people as well as their roles at the company. The records also detailed when Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates&#xa0;was first established.
According to a document filed with the state of Washington in 2008, the seven owners of Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates were James Mitchell, John Bruce Jessen, David Ayers, Randall Spivey, James Sporleder, Joseph Matarazzo, and Roger Aldrich.
Records show Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates&#xa0;<a href="https://www.sos.wa.gov/corps/search_results.aspx?search_type=simple&amp;criteria=all&amp;name_type=starts_with&amp;name=&amp;ubi=+602495307">became inactive in October 2009</a>. However, four of the company's owners appear to work at other firms that currently consult with the US government. Three of them - Spivey, Sporleder, and Aldrich - are still working together at a company called the Center For Personal Protection &amp; Safety, which counts both the Department of Defense and the FBI among its clients.
Their company reportedly developed interrogation techniques&#xa0;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-senate-is-about-to-release-the-cia-torture-report-2014-12">the Senate report described as "brutal,"</a>&#xa0;including forced rectal feedings, waterboarding, sleep deprivation, mock executions, and intense psychological manipulation. Late Wednesday evening, a CIA representative said the agency would not be able to comment on this story until the following morning, at the earliest.&#xa0;
<h3>Reverse-Engineering Torture</h3>
Most of the owners of Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates previously worked with the military's Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) program, which trains American service members to survive and resist interrogation by enemy forces. In this program, they worked with soldiers who survived being captured and abused in foreign countries. The SERE trainers studied the effects of this torture. They also engaged in role-playing scenarios in which they taught soldiers to face these techniques.&#xa0;
Participation in the SERE program gave the owners of&#xa0;Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates firsthand experience in identifying which torture techniques were most effective and the psychology behind them. The CIA later reverse-engineered these tactics to use on terrorism suspects at so-called black sites&#xa0;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-cia-interrogation-program-was-a-foreign-policy-nightmare-2014-12">placed in foreign countries outside of US legal jurisdiction</a>,&#xa0;because the practices employed during these "enhanced" interrogations were clearly prohibited by US law.
In 2011, Truthout <a href="http://truth-out.org/index.php?option=com_k2&amp;view=item&amp;id=205:exclusive-cia-psychologists-notes-reveal-true-purpose-behind-bushs-torture-program">obtained a series of handwritten notes</a> it said were written by Dr. John Bruce Jessen, who Business Insider has learned was the president of Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates. In these notes, written during his time working at the SERE program, Jessen described what he referred to as the "psychological aspects of detention."
Jessen's notes described how torture could be effective and gave US soldiers strategies to withstand abuse. He warned detainers would "manipulate and control your external environment almost at will." These notes outlined some of the same strategies CIA interrogators would later use on terrorism suspects at black sites, where the Senate report said detainees were subjected to loud rock music and severe cold temperatures.
NBC reported that&#xa0;Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates&#xa0;presented the CIA with 20 techniques, and the agency passed on a few "because some of proposed techniques were considered too harsh even for terrorists."&#xa0;
<h3>From A Fortified Facility To A Quiet Office Building&#xa0;</h3>
SERE is based at the Air Force Survival School, located at an Air Force base just outside of Spokane. The program is overseen by the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency, which conducts more secretive work and is located at a facility adjacent to the base that <a href="http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2007/aug/29/behind-barbed-wire/">reportedly has</a> a barbed-wire fence, armed guards, and "3-foot thick, blast-proof concrete walls." Through their work with the CIA, these experts from&#xa0;Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates seem to have employed their expertise on the torture techniques used by America's enemies to develop tactics that the US subsequently used on its prisoners.

President Barack Obama&#xa0;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-cia-interrogators-violated-who-we-are-2014-12">has acknowledged that some terrorism detainees were tortured</a> while being questioned by the CIA. He banned the enhanced interrogations shortly after he took office in 2009.
A company registration filed in Washington in 2007 showed&#xa0;Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates was originally formed in Delaware on Sept. 9, 2004, and began doing business in Washington in 2005. The company was operated out of a suite in a nondescript office building in downtown Spokane. In the handwritten registration, signed by Jessen, it said&#xa0;the company "provides consulting and training to US government."&#xa0;
Read about the seven owners of Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates and their connections to the CIA torture program below.
 A limited-liability company license renewal filed with the state of Washington in 2008 identified Mitchell as the CEO of Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates.
He has been <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmNUi0itl-8">widely described as the "architect"</a> of the CIA's enhanced interrogation program.&#xa0;&#xa0;
According <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/12/us/12psychs.html?_r=5&amp;hp=&amp;pagewanted=all&amp;">the 2009 New York Times story</a>&#xa0;that first publicized his role in the CIA torture program, Mitchell&#xa0;<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/12/us/12psychs.html?pagewanted=all&amp;_r=0">joined the Air Force in 1974 and was initially stationed in Alaska</a>,&#xa0;where "he learned the art of disarming bombs and earned bachelor's and master's degrees in psychology." Mitchell, who was from Florida, went on to work with the SERE program in the 1980s at the&#xa0;Air Force Survival School outside of Spokane&#xa0;with Dr. John Bruce Jessen.&#xa0;
Both Mitchell and Jessen were close during their time at the Air Force Survival School. The Times said the two men&#xa0;<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/12/us/12psychs.html?_r=5&amp;hp=&amp;pagewanted=all&amp;">"</a><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/12/us/12psychs.html?_r=5&amp;hp=&amp;pagewanted=all&amp;">took weekend ice-climbing trips together"</a>&#xa0;and became "part of what some Defense Department officials called the 'resistance mafia,' experts on how to resist enemy interrogations."
Initially, Jessen was the&#xa0;SERE psychologist at the school. In this capacity, he vetted instructors who portrayed interrogators at the school's mock prison camp that was used to train soldiers who might end up in enemy hands.
In 1988, The Times said, Jessen left his position at the survival school and took "the top psychologist's job at a parallel 'graduate school' of survival training, a short drive from the Air Force school." He was replaced by Mitchell.
According to The Times, Mitchell retired from the military shortly before the Sept. 11 attacks and began consulting for the CIA by "the start of 2002."
In March 2002, when Abu Zubaydah, who was suspected of being the third-ranked member of Al Qaeda, was captured in Pakistan, The Times said Mitchell traveled to a CIA black site in Thailand to oversee the interrogation.
Zubaydah's questioning reportedly included his being sleep deprived, waterboarded, held in a box naked, exposed to cold temperatures, and beaten. The Senate report that was released Tuesday&#xa0;<a href="http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/12/cia_torture_report_zubaydah.html">identified Zubaydah as something of a guinea pig</a>&#xa0;for the CIA's harsh interrogation techniques. The Times said Jessen&#xa0;<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/12/us/12psychs.html?pagewanted=all&amp;_r=0">joined Mitchell in Thailand a few months after he arrived</a>&#xa0;to observe Zubaydah's questioning.&#xa0;
After the Senate report on CIA interrogation techniques was released, Mitchell told Bloomberg he could not confirm or deny whether he was involved with the program because of a nondisclosure agreement.&#xa0;
"I'm in a box - I'm caught in some Kafka novel," Mitchell said. "Everyone is assuming it is me, but I can't confirm or deny it. It is frustrating because you can't defend yourself."
Mitchell did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider on Wednesday.
In the&#xa0;document filed with Washington state,&#xa0;Jessen was named as the president of Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates.
Jessen, who was <a href="http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2012/oct/18/church-appointee-aided-cia-on-terror/">once a Mormon bishop</a>, became the SERE psychologist at the Air Force Survival School outside of Spokane in the 1980s.&#xa0;According to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/12/us/12psychs.html?_r=5&amp;hp=&amp;pagewanted=all&amp;">the Times story</a>,&#xa0;while at the survival school, Jessen made an "unusual job switch" and went "from supervising psychologist to mock enemy interrogator." The Times reported Jessen became "so aggressive" in his staged interrogations that he frightened his colleagues.&#xa0;
NBC's Robert Windrem, who first connected Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates to the Senate report,&#xa0;published a story Tuesday that said "former intelligence officials and congressional investigators" confirmed the CIA <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/cia-torture-report/cia-paid-torture-teachers-more-80-million-n264756">began consulting</a> with both Jessen and Mitchell about interrogation techniques in July 2002.&#xa0;
"Jessen immediately resigned from the Air Force and, along with Mitchell, another recently retired colleague, founded Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates," Windrem wrote.&#xa0;
In 2009, the Senate Armed Services Committee conducted an inquiry into the "treatment of detainees in US Custody." Both Jessen and Mitchell testified before the committee about their work advising the government on interrogation techniques. The committee's report noted many of their tactics were developed based on&#xa0;their work with SERE and the JPRA. It also said&#xa0;Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates had seven co-owners and "between 55 and 60 employees, several of whom were former JPRA employees."
The report did not name the other co-owners of&#xa0;Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates. On Wednesday, a committee staffer told Business Insider the report was the only public record from the inquiry and that further details of Jessen and Mitchell's testimony were not released. Jessen could not be reached for comment on this story.&#xa0;
David Ayres: Records for&#xa0;Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates show Ayres was the firm's CFO.&#xa0;
In January, <a href="http://www.tate-inc.com/news/company-news/">a press release from a Virginia-based defense contractor</a>, Tate Incorporated, identified Ayres as the company's president. According to its website, Tate "is the preeminent firm focusing exclusively on personnel recovery."
"We provide unparalleled expertise in PR training to the Department of Defense (DoD), other US Government agencies and government contractors," the site says.
In 2009, <a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/has-cia-consulting-firm-gone-mia-527">ProPublica reported</a>&#xa0;that Tate Inc. was headquartered at an address in Alexandria, Virginia, that was shared by Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates.&#xa0;
Ayres did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
&#xa0;The website of the Center for Personal Protection &amp; Safety, a firm based in Spokane and Virginia, identifies Spivey as the company's CEO and founder. CPPS' site <a href="http://www.cpps.com/about">says it provides</a> "scalable training and consulting solutions in the US for Workplace Violence Prevention, Active Shooter Response, and High Risk Travel" to businesses and several government agencies including the FBI and Department of Defense.&#xa0;
The document filed in Washington state in 2008 listed Spivey as a partner at&#xa0;Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates. His biography on the CPPS website says Spivey is a former DOD executive who "provided oversight to all Hostage Survival training programs in the Department of Defense from 1997 to 2002 and co-authored multiple hostage-related policy and doctrine documents."
According to the CPPS website, two other former owners of&#xa0;Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates, James Sporleder and&#xa0;Roger Aldrich, work with Spivey at the company. Spivey did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Business Insider on Wednesday.
 A <a href="http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2007/aug/29/behind-barbed-wire/">2007 article in Spokane's Spokesman-Review newspaper</a> described Sporleder as a former official with the secretive JPRA, which oversees the SERE program for which Mitchell and Jessen both worked.&#xa0;
On the CPPS website, Sporleder <a href="http://www.cpps.com/president-principal">is identified</a> as the company's "president and cofounder." In this capacity, the site says he "is responsible for directly training more than 5,000 high-risk-of-capture personnel from some of the most elite units in the military."
"During his government career, he was responsible for planning, preparation, support, and execution of numerous repatriation operations reaching back to 1993. He served as team chief in repatriation preparations for three US Army soldiers held in Kosovo in 1999 and also led the debriefing team for that effort," the CPPS site says of Sporleder. "He was additionally assigned as the Repatriation Team Chief, Forward, for the return and debrief of 24 United States Navy EP-3 Crew members detained for 13 days in the People's Republic of China."
The record for&#xa0;Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates filed with the state of Washington listed Sporleder as one of the company's partners. He did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.&#xa0;
Joseph Matarazzo: In a <a href="http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2007/aug/12/expert-has-stake-in-cryptic-local-firm/">statement emailed to The Spokesman-Review in 2007</a>, Matarazzo said he owned 1% of&#xa0;Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates. In spite of acknowledging partial ownership, Matarazzo, a former psychology professor who was once president of the American Psychological Association, told the newspaper he was "not and never has been involved in the company's operational decisions" and only "attends brief and infrequent company&#xa0;meetings."
Matarazzo also disavowed the torture of terrorism suspects.
"I have never been involved in the use either of torture or the legal or illegal interrogation of prisoners or anyone else. And I would strongly advise against it," Matarazzo said. "I also have no knowledge of anyone who has been involved in such torture or&#xa0;interrogation."
On the document filed with Washington state, Matarazzo was described as a partner at&#xa0;Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates. Matarazzo, who is nearly 90 years old, could not be reached for comment on this story. An Oregon phone number listed in his name was disconnected.
 The Times report on Mitchell and Jessen <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/12/us/12psychs.html?pagewanted=all&amp;_r=0">called Aldrich</a> a "legendary military survival trainer."
On <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/12/us/12psychs.html?pagewanted=all">the CPPS website</a> he is listed as the company's chief communications officer. According to CPPS, Aldrich spent 33 years working for the DOD at the JPRA, where he was "an instructor, instructor trainer, curriculum developer, and director of the US Government's only specialized, foreign governmental detention and hostage survival program."&#xa0;
Aldrich was identified as a&#xa0;Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates partner in the record filed with Washington state. He did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider on Wednesday.
View the&#xa0;Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates records obtained by Business Insider below. Some personal information has been redacted.

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These 7 Men Owned The Company Linked To CIA Torture

<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-senate-is-about-to-release-the-cia-torture-report-2014-12">on the CIA's so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques"</a> that was released on Tuesday said a firm identified only as "Company Y" was responsible for developing many of the tactics used during the questioning of terrorism suspects in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks. 
Following the release of the details of the Senate probe, <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/cia-torture-report/cia-paid-torture-teachers-more-80-million-n264756">NBC News reported</a> the company that worked to develop these techniques and received over $80 million from the government for its work was a firm based in Spokane, Washington called Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates.
While much of the attention on Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates has focused on the two owners of the company who gave it its name, the firm actually had seven co-owners. Documents exclusively obtained by Business Insider on Wednesday confirmed the names of these seven people as well as their roles at the company. The records also detailed when Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates was first established.
According to a document filed with the state of Washington in 2008, the seven owners of Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates were: James Mitchell, John Bruce Jessen, David Ayers, Randall Spivey, James Sporleder, Joseph Matarazzo, and Roger Aldrich.
Records show Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates <a href="https://www.sos.wa.gov/corps/search_results.aspx?search_type=simple&amp;criteria=all&amp;name_type=starts_with&amp;name=&amp;ubi=+602495307">became inactive in October 2009</a>. However, four of the company's owners appear to work at other firms that currently consult with the US government. Three of them, Spivey, Sporleder, and Aldrich, are still working together at a company called the Center For Personal Protection &amp; Safety, which counts both the Department of Defense and FBI among its clients.
Their company reportedly developed interrogation techniques <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-senate-is-about-to-release-the-cia-torture-report-2014-12">the Senate report described as "brutal"</a> including forced rectal feedings, waterboarding, sleep deprivation, mock executions, and intense psychological manipulation. Late Wednesday evening, a CIA spokesperson said the agency would not be able to comment on this story until the following morning, at the earliest. 
<h3>Reverse Engineering Torture</h3>
The majority of the owners of Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates previously worked with the military's Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) program, which trains American service members to survive and resist interrogation by enemy forces. In this program they worked with soldiers who survived being captured and abused in foreign countries. The SERE trainers studied the effects of this torture. They also engaged in role playing scenarios where they taught soldiers to face these techniques. 
Participation in the SERE program gave the owners of Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates firsthand experience in what torture techniques were most effective and the psychology behind them. The CIA later reverse engineered these tactics to use on terrorism suspects at so-called "black sites" <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-cia-interrogation-program-was-a-foreign-policy-nightmare-2014-12">placed in foreign countries outside of US legal jurisdiction</a> due to the fact the practices employed during these "enhanced" interrogations were clearly prohibited by American law.
In 2011, Truthout <a href="http://truth-out.org/index.php?option=com_k2&amp;view=item&amp;id=205:exclusive-cia-psychologists-notes-reveal-true-purpose-behind-bushs-torture-program">obtained a series of handwritten notes</a> it claimed were written by Dr. John Bruce Jessen, who Business Insider has learned was the president of Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates. In these notes, which were written during his time working at the SERE program, Jessen described what he referred to as the "psychological aspects of detention."
Jessen's notes described how torture could be effective and gave US soldiers strategies to withstand abuse. He warned detainers would "manipulate and control your external environment almost at will." These notes outlined some of the very same strategies CIA interrogators would later use on terrorism suspects at black sites where the Senate report said they subjected detainees to loud rock music and severe cold temperatures.
NBC reported that Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates presented the CIA with 20 techniques, and the agency passed on a few "because some of proposed techniques were considered too harsh even for terrorists." 
<h3>From A Fortified Facility To A Quiet Office Building </h3>
SERE is based at the Air Force Survival School, which is located at an Air Force base just outside of Spokane. The program is overseen by the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency, which conducts more secretive work and is located at a facility adjacent to the base that <a href="http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2007/aug/29/behind-barbed-wire/">reportedly has</a> a barbed wire fence, armed guards, and "3-foot thick, blast-proof concrete walls." Through their work with the CIA, these experts from Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates seem to employed their expertise on the torture techniques used by America's enemies to develop tactics that the US subsequently used on its own prisoners.

President Barack Obama <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-cia-interrogators-violated-who-we-are-2014-12">has acknowledged some terrorism detainees were tortured</a> while being questioned by the CIA. He banned the enhanced interrogations shortly after he took office in 2009.
A company registration filed in Washington in 2007 showed Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates was originally formed in Delaware on September 9, 2004 and began doing business in Washington in 2005. The company was operated out of a suite in a nondescript office building in downtown Spokane. In the handwritten registration, which was signed by Jessen, it said the company "provides consulting and training to U.S. government." 
Read about the seven owners of Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates and their connections to the CIA torture program below.
James Mitchell: A limited liability company license renewal filed with the state of Washington in 2008 identified Mitchell as the CEO of Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates.
He has been <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmNUi0itl-8">widely described as the "architect"</a> of the CIA's enhanced interrogation program. 
According <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/12/us/12psychs.html?_r=5&amp;hp=&amp;pagewanted=all&amp;">the 2009 New York Times story</a> that first publicized his role in the CIA torture program, Mitchell <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/12/us/12psychs.html?pagewanted=all&amp;_r=0">joined the Air Force in 1974 and was initially stationed in Alaska</a> where "he learned the art of disarming bombs and earned bachelor's and master's degrees in psychology." Mitchell, who was from Florida, went on to work with the SERE program in the 1980s at the Air Force Survival School outside of Spokane with Dr. John Bruce Jessen. 
Both Mitchell and Jessen were close during their time at the Air Force Survival School. The Times said the two men <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/12/us/12psychs.html?_r=5&amp;hp=&amp;pagewanted=all&amp;">"</a><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/12/us/12psychs.html?_r=5&amp;hp=&amp;pagewanted=all&amp;">took weekend ice-climbing trips together"</a> and became "part of what some Defense Department officials called the 'resistance mafia,' experts on how to resist enemy interrogations."
Initially, Jessen was the SERE psychologist at the school. In this capacity, he vetted instructors who portrayed interrogators at the school's mock prison camp that was used to train soldiers who might end up in enemy hands.
In 1988, the Times said Jessen left his position at the survival school and took "the top psychologist's job at a parallel 'graduate school' of survival training, a short drive from the Air Force school." He was replaced by Mitchell.
According to the Times, Mitchell retired from the military shortly before the September 11th attacks in 2001 and that he began consulting for the CIA by "the start of 2002."
In March of 2002, when Abu Zubaydah, who was suspected of being the third ranked member of Al Qaeda, was captured in Pakistan, the Times said Mitchell traveled to a CIA "black site" in Thailand to oversee the interrogation.
Zubaydah's questioning reportedly included him being sleep deprived, waterboarded, held in a box stripped naked, exposed to cold temperatures, and beaten. The Senate report that was released Tuesday <a href="http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/12/cia_torture_report_zubaydah.html">identified Zubaydah as something of a guinea pig</a> for the CIA's harsh interrogation techniques. The Times said Jessen <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/12/us/12psychs.html?pagewanted=all&amp;_r=0">joined Mitchell in Thailand a few months after he arrived</a> in order to observer Zubaydah's questioning. 
After the Senate report on CIA interrogation techniques was released, Mitchell told Bloomberg he could not confirm or deny whether he was involved with the program due to a non-disclosure agreement. 
"I'm in a box - I'm caught in some Kafka novel," Mitchell said. "Everyone is assuming it is me, but I can't confirm or deny it. It is frustrating because you can't defend yourself."
Mitchell did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider on Wednesday.
In the document filed with Washington state, Jessen was named as the president of Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates.
Jessen, who was <a href="http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2012/oct/18/church-appointee-aided-cia-on-terror/">once a Mormon bishop</a>, became the SERE psychologist at the Air Force Survival School outside of Spokane in the 1980's. According to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/12/us/12psychs.html?_r=5&amp;hp=&amp;pagewanted=all&amp;">the Times story</a>, while at the survival school, Jessen made an "unusual job switch" and went "from supervising psychologist to mock enemy interrogator." The Times reported Jessen became "so aggressive" in his staged interrogations that he actually frightened some colleagues. 
NBC's Robert Windrem, who first connected Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates to the Senate report, published a story on Tuesday that said "former intelligence officials and congressional investigators" confirmed the CIA <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/cia-torture-report/cia-paid-torture-teachers-more-80-million-n264756">began consulting</a> with both Jessen and Mitchell about interrogation techniques in July 2002. 
"Jessen immediately resigned from the Air Force and, along with Mitchell, another recently retired colleague, founded Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates," Windrem wrote. 
In 2009, the Senate Armed Services Committee conducted an inquiry into the "treatment of detainees in U.S. Custody." Both Jessen and Mitchell testified before the committee about their work advising the government on interrogation techniques. The committee's report noted many of their tactics were developed based on their work with SERE and the JPRA. It also said Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates had seven co-owners and "between 55 and 60 employees, several of whom were former JPRA employees."
The report did not name the other co-owners of Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates. On Wednesday, committee staffer told Business Insider the report was the only public record from the inquiry and further details of Jessen and Mitchell's testimony were not released. Jessen could not be reached for comment on this story. 
David Ayres: Records for Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates show David Ayres was the firm's CFO. 
In January, <a href="http://www.tate-inc.com/news/company-news/">a press release from a Virginia-based defense contractor</a>, TATE, Incorporated, identified a man named David Ayres as the company's president. According to its website, TATE "is the preeminent firm focusing exclusively on personnel recovery."
"We provide unparalleled expertise in PR training to the Department of Defense (DoD), other U.S. Government agencies and government contractors," the site says.
In 2009, <a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/has-cia-consulting-firm-gone-mia-527">ProPublica reported</a> TATE, Incorporated was headquartered at an address in Alexandria, Virginia that was also shared by Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates. 
Ayres did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
 The website of the Center for Personal Protection &amp; Safety, a firm based in Spokane and Virginia, identifies Randall Spivey as the company's CEO and founder. CPPS's site <a href="http://www.cpps.com/about">says it provides</a> "scalable training and consulting solutions in the U.S. for Workplace Violence Prevention, Active Shooter Response, and High Risk Travel" to businesses and several government agencies including the FBI and Department of Defense. 
The document filed in Washington state in 2008 listed Spivey as a partner at Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates. His biography on the CPPS website says Spivey is a former DOD executive who "provided oversight to all Hostage Survival training programs in the Department of Defense from 1997 to 2002 and co-authored multiple hostage-related policy and doctrine documents."
According to the CPPS website, two other former owners of Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates, James Sporleder and Roger Aldrich, currently work with Spivey at the company. Spivey did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Business Insider on Wednesday.
 A <a href="http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2007/aug/29/behind-barbed-wire/">2007 article in Spokane's Spokesman-Review newspaper</a> described James V. Sporleder as a former official with the secretive JPRA, which oversees the SERE program where Mitchell and Jessen both worked. 
On the CPPS website, Sporleder <a href="http://www.cpps.com/president-principal">is identified</a> as the company's "president and co-founder." In this capacity, the site says he "is responsible for directly training more than 5,000 high-risk-of-capture personnel from some of the most elite units in the military."
"During his government career, he was responsible for planning, preparation, support, and execution of numerous repatriation operations reaching back to 1993. He served as team chief in repatriation preparations for three U.S. Army soldiers held in Kosovo in 1999 and also led the debriefing team for that effort," the CPPS site says of Sporleder. "He was additionally assigned as the Repatriation Team Chief, Forward, for the return and debrief of 24 United States Navy EP-3 Crew members detained for 13 days in the People's Republic of China."
The record for Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates filed with the state of Washington listed Sporleder as one of the company's partners. He did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. 
Joseph Matarazzo: In a <a href="http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2007/aug/12/expert-has-stake-in-cryptic-local-firm/">statement emailed to the Spokesman-Review in 2007</a>, Joseph Matarazzo said he owned one percent of Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates. In spite of admitting partial ownership, Matarazzo, a former psychology professor who was once president of the American Psychological Association, told the newspaper he "is not and never has been involved in the company's operational decisions" and only "attends brief and infrequent company meetings."
Matarazzo also disavowed the torture of terrorism suspects.
"I have never been involved in the use either of torture or the legal or illegal interrogation of prisoners or anyone else. And I would strongly advise against it," said Matarazzo. "I also have no knowledge of anyone who has been involved in such torture or interrogation."
On the document filed with Washington State, Matarazzo was described as a partner at Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates. Matarazzo, who is nearly 90-years-old, could not be reached for comment on this story. An Oregon phone number listed in his named was disconnected.
 The Times report on Mitchell and Jessen <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/12/us/12psychs.html?pagewanted=all&amp;_r=0">called Roger Aldrich</a> a "legendary military survival trainer."
On <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/12/us/12psychs.html?pagewanted=all">the CPPS website</a> he is listed as the company's chief communications officer. According to CPPS, Aldrich spent 33 years working for the DOD at the JPRA where he was "an instructor, instructor trainer, curriculum developer, and director of the U.S. Government's only specialized, foreign governmental detention and hostage survival program." 
Aldrich was identified as a Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates partner in the record filed with Washington state. He did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider on Wednesday.
View the Mitchell, Jessen &amp; Associates records obtained by Business Insider below. Some personal information has been redacted.

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