WSJ: CIA Likely Let Contractors Perform Waterboarding

[seafan]

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020808R.shtml">CIA Likely Let Contractors Perform Waterboarding

By Siobhan Gorman
February 8, 2008

(via Truthout)

Washington - The CIA's secret interrogation program has made extensive use of outside contractors, whose role likely included the waterboarding of terrorist suspects, according to testimony yesterday from the CIA director and two other people familiar with the program.

Many of the contractors involved aren't large corporate entities but rather individuals who are often former agency or military officers. However, large corporations also are involved, current and former officials said. Their identities couldn't be learned. The broader involvement of contractors, and the likelihood they partook in waterboarding, raises new legal questions about the Central Intelligence Agency's use of the practice, which is designed to simulate drowning. It also will fuel the contentious debate over the administration's use of harsh interrogation techniques.
The role of contractors in sensitive security programs has become a hot issue on Capitol Hill. It isn't clear what laws govern their work and who is accountable when activities go awry, as they did when employees of the security firm Blackwater allegedly killed 17 Iraqi civilians and wounded 24 others in September. An investigation of that is under way; Blackwater continues to provide security services to State Department employees in Iraq.

In testimony before the House yesterday, CIA Director Michael V. Hayden was asked whether contractors were involved in waterboarding al Qaeda detainees. He replied: "I'm not sure of the specifics. I'll give you a tentative answer: I believe so." An agency spokesman declined to clarify the answer. According to two current and former intelligence officials, the use of contracting at the CIA's secret sites increased quickly in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, in part because the CIA had little experience in detentions and interrogation. Using nongovernment employees also helped maintain a low profile, they said. The sites were designed to handle only the most sensitive detainees. Gen. Hayden has said fewer than 100 people have been held at these sites. ..... The use of outside contractors raises awkward questions about accountability. "The government may be prohibited from doing something, but is a corporation?" asked R.J. Hillhouse, a former political-science professor who has researched the outsourcing of military and intelligence operations for her book "Outsourced." Ms. Hillhouse said procurement law has traditionally differentiated between the reporting responsibilities of government officers and contractors.
Gen. Hayden, however, said private contractors involved in CIA interrogations "are bound by the same rules" as the agency's officers.

Lawmakers are concerned that using contractors in interrogations may violate the law, or at least government policy, which states that "inherently governmental activities" must be performed by government personnel.
Jeffrey Smith, a former CIA general counsel, said it might make sense to use contractors who have a language specialty to screen detainees, for example. But waterboarding crosses into the realm of activities only the government should perform.
"If we're going to ask contractors to do these things, then we have to find a way to assure that they comply with the law and that, to the extent we direct them to do activities that violate local law, that we protect them," Mr. Smith said. He added that he opposes the waterboarding.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, wrote to Attorney General Michael Mukasey on Wednesday to ask his views on the legality of involving contractors to program interrogations.
"I believe the interrogation of detainees falls squarely within the definition of an inherently governmental activity," Sen. Feinstein wrote. The 2006 Detainee Treatment Act includes a legal shield for U.S. government employees who use officially authorized interrogation techniques.

.....

The CIA established its detention sites in several countries, including Thailand, Afghanistan and multiple countries in Eastern Europe. Waterboarding reportedly took place in Thailand and possibly other countries.

The Justice Department is currently investigating the CIA's destruction of interrogation tapes that reportedly included footage of waterboarding. Lawmakers have urged the department to expand its inquiry to include a criminal inquiry of the technique. The attorney general told a separate House committee yesterday he wasn't ready to do that.

.....

Thanks again, Feinstein and Schumer. Fools.

[L. Coyote]

1. Listen carefully to Mukasey parse his words with qualifiers when addressing TORTURE

and you will note that the admissions attempting to put a "three worst terrorists" face on water torture may cover for more known instances of war crimes by non-CIA entities in and out of government.

Lots of recent Mukasey testimony VIDEOs linked in one spot here:

***** View LIVE Webcast ***** HOUSE Oversight Hearing DoJ Mukasey ******
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2829051

[LiberalFighter]

2. I wouldnt' consider the CIA hands clean on this matter.

And if they used former agency or military officers their hands are not clean either as they knew the law.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

5. Still, the CIA operatives are simply following orders, like our troops. What's their option?

Here are some lyrics for the delicate position of the CIA in this matter. Who will get the blame, Lt. Calley?

Waiting On The World To Change

John Mayer -

Me and all my friends
We're all misunderstood
They say we stand for nothing and
There's no way we ever could
Now we see everything that's going wrong
With the world and those who lead it
We just feel like we don't have the means
To rise above and beat it

So we keep waiting
(waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting
(waiting)
Waiting on the world to change

It's hard to beat the system
When we're standing at attention
So we keep waiting
(waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
Now if we had the power
To bring our neighbors home from war
They would have never missed a Christmas
No more ribbons on their door
And when you trust your television

What you get is what you got
Cause when they own the information, oh
They can bend it all they want

That's why we're waiting
(waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting
(waiting)
Waiting on the world to change

It's not that we don't care,
We just know that the fight ain't fair
So we keep on waiting
(waiting)
Waiting on the world to change

And we're still waiting
(waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting
(waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
One day our generation
Is gonna rule the population
So we keep on waiting
(waiting)
Waiting on the world to change

Now we keep on waiting
(waiting)
Waiting on the world to change

Waiting on the world to change

lyrics found on http://www.completealbumlyrics.com

[LiberalFighter]

7. Troops have a duty and a right to refuse unlawful orders

CIA operatives or others do not have legal right to operate outside the law. And they should be prosecuted when they fail to obey the law.

[sattahipdeep]

3. mercenaries

It is not the first time the Bush administration seeks to evade blades of
criticism and condemnation. The Abu Ghraib prison scandal where the US
mercenaries stripped the prisoners naked and performed sadistic-voyeuristic
acts upon them was an utter shock to American public opinion and collective conscience.
The US officials initially feigned ignorance of the whole situation going on in
Abu Ghraib but later they acknowledged to the horror of the world that the reservists
were following the orders of the top US echelons.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=42348§ionid=3510303

[Solly Mack]

4. K&R

Hide behind anything and everything and then claim their hands were tied , so no accountability

"The role of contractors in sensitive security programs has become a hot issue on Capitol Hill. It isn't clear what laws govern their work and who is accountable when activities go awry..."

"The use of outside contractors raises awkward questions about accountability. 'The government may be prohibited from doing something, but is a corporation?'"


"But waterboarding crosses into the realm of activities only the government should perform.
"If we're going to ask contractors to do these things, then we have to find a way to assure that they comply with the law and that, to the extent we direct them to do activities that violate local law, that we protect them," Mr. Smith said. He added that he opposes the waterboarding."

WOW

Fuckit

[Joanne98]

6. Now we're getting somewhere! K&R!