John Francis Leso (born August 13, 1966)[1] is an American psychologist and a major in the United States Armed Services, who is reported to have aided interrogators at Guantanamo Bay detention camp.
[2][3] Leso co-authored an October 2002 memo which "recommended physically and psychologically harmful and abusive detention and interrogation tactics", which were used on Mohammed al-Qahtani, the alleged 20th hijacker.
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.
[citation needed] In 2003 Leso was a staff psychologist at the Walter Reed Medical Center, in Maryland.
[4] On August 24, 2005, a newsletter from the Albany University Psychology Department stated: "...and John Leso left Walter Reed and is now working in the U.S. Embassy in Austria.