ABC News brings us a couple of juicy tidbits about “the two psychologists credited for being the architects of the CIA’s brutal interrogation program after 9/11″:

Dr. James Mitchell and Dr. Bruce Jessen, who suggested and supervised waterboarding at secret prisons around the world … according to their associates, boasted of being paid $1,000 a day by the CIA to oversee the use of the technique on top al Qaeda suspects.

It’s bad enough that they made money from torture. But these lowlifes liked to boast about it!

One former military psychologist tells ABC News that Mitchell & Jessen charged the CIA roughly $500,000 a year for their services. It was this source’s understanding that the money was largely tax-free and did not include expenses, which the agency also paid for.

How the eff does that even work? The money was presumably paid to Mitchell & Jessen Associates, the consulting company Mitchell and Jessen created for purposes of aiding, abetting and presiding over torture. No-bid contracts weren’t enough of an abuse of power, so the Bush administration decided it was empowered to award tax-free contracts? (Or maybe they hired Mitchell & Jessen Associates as a subcontractor through the UN or the IMF?)

In any case, it looks like Mitchell & Jessen Associates hit the trifecta of government contracting: tax-free no-bid cost-plus contracts. Even Halliburton never had it so good.