CIA Granted Waterboarders $5M Legal Shield

[sabra]

Source: CBS News/AP

Ex-U.S. Officials say CIA Agreed to Pay $5M to Protect Private Architects - and Executors - of Technique from Lawsuits

(CBS/AP) The CIA agreed to cover at least $5 million in legal fees for two contractors who were the architects of the agency's interrogation program and personally conducted dozens of waterboarding sessions on terror detainees, former U.S. officials said.

The secret agreement means taxpayers are paying to defend the men in a federal investigation over an interrogation tactic the U.S. now says is torture. The deal is even more generous than the protections the agency typically provides its own officers, giving the two men access to more money to finance their defense.

It has long been known that psychologists Jim Mitchell and Bruce Jessen created the CIA's interrogation program. But former U.S. intelligence officials said Mitchell and Jessen also repeatedly subjected terror suspects inside CIA-run secret prisons to waterboarding, a simulated drowning tactic.

The revelation of the contractors' involvement is the first known confirmation of any individuals who conducted waterboarding at the so-called black sites, underscoring just how much the agency relied on outside help in its most sensitive interrogations.

Normally, CIA officers buy insurance to cover possible legal bills. It costs about $300 a year for $1 million in coverage. Today, the CIA pays the premiums for most officers, but at the height of the war on terrorism, officers had to pay half.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/12/17/national/main7159001.shtml?tag=stack

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

Sick, sick country.

[Jefferson23]

2. I'm just looking forward, not back....do not look back. Let us focus

on Julian Assange instead..the real threat to democracy.

[underpants]

12. Men in Black mind eraser. The Media (following Fox) have virtually erased our memory of 2 years ago

they have melted down all of the Bush years and poured them into the Obama mold and people have forgotten how we got here.

There is NO discussion of anything that the last two Congresses (Dem controlled) have actually accomplished - and the list is extensive.
There is NO discussion at all of Iraq


It is more amazing than sad to watch - and it is both.

[glinda]

3. K & R n/t

[Pavulon]

4. That is not acceptable. If they were going to do the job

they should have signoff from the executive branch. this looks odd and illegal.

[Capitalocracy]

6. You're saying there should be no possibility to sue?

Or what do you mean exactly? a little confused by your wording there.

[Pavulon]

7. I mean if the executive signs off on this

method there should be no need for a hedge. It is either illegal (which it probably was) or not.

Waterboarding is torture and should not have been used by an american agency.

[wmbrew0206]

14. If there is one thing that CIA or NSA agents live in fear of, its civil

law suits filed by groups with lots of lawyers or congressional inquires. The agents have to pay for their lawyers after a certain point and those costs will bankrupt a GS-15 or -16 very quickly. Rangel had the same problem and he has been in Congress for decades.

The CIA would never be able to ask any agent to run a risky operation if these guys weren't given some protections. They were told it was a legal operations and had something sign by DOJ. The law changed after the fact and now people want to go after them. Can't have it both ways. Go after the lawyer who made the bad call, but don't go after the guy on the ground who thinks he has legal cover. If you go after the guys on the ground, the CIA will never be able to ask its agents to do things they need to do, since they'll say no because their scared they will be hung out to dry at a later point.

[L. Coyote]

5. To defend war crimes is itself a greater crime.

Doesn't this make the US a rogue state?

[Supersedeas]

11. It's just not right. The Attorney General looked into the camera and called us a

Nation of Cowards....and yet, this is his idea of justice?

[Uncle Joe]

8. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, sabra.

[Stuart G]

9. K and R

[Moonwalk]

10. Your Tax Dollars Hard at Work....

:wtf:

[Downwinder]

13. Isn't this confidential information? Printed by CBS and leaked by

"former officials, who insisted on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter." Where's the AG? Going to file charges?

[Rex]

15. Govt employed criminals giving murderers money?

Oh wait...thought we were talking about the 'War on Drugs' or Iraq. :sarcasm: