CIA Contractors Played Big Role In Interrogations (Shapiro / Morning Edition)

by Ari Shapiro
Audio for this story will be available at approx. 9:00 a.m. ET
Morning Edition, May 15, 2009

Congressional testimony this week showed that private CIA contractors were a driving force behind harsh interrogations. Although there are lawsuits against military contractors involved in detainee abuse, there has been far less legal action against contractors who worked for the CIA.

American Civil Liberties Union attorney Ben Wisner believes this is largely because of the secrecy that has surrounded the CIA's interrogation and detention program.

"There simply have not been a lot of lawsuits related to the CIA's torture program against either the CIA or its contractors, because courts have almost universally been shutting these lawsuits down on the basis of overbroad secrecy claims made by the CIA," says Wisner.

President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have said CIA agents who followed the Justice Department's legal advice won't be prosecuted criminally, but they have said nothing about contractors ...

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104160006

response in a midsize town and ensure their voices couldn't be ignored in Washington. Politics isn't a spectator sport -- it's a game of standing up, getting knocked down, and standing up again to try a different tactic

squat as you probably know... We don't have money or influence in this arena....

thought DC was a great town and a hellhole at the same time. Pre-internet, I'd go there a few times a year to scope out organizations that monitored national stuff -- many of them they were (and still are) critical to those of us who want coordinated action from out here in the boonies. If you think about it, you can probably find lots of stuff that needs to be done and requires somebody in DC -- especially if you think about helping other people elsewhere amplify their voices in a timely manner

Bellingham Washington... Lake Samish... Thats about as small as you can get in population I suspect...

Beautiful country, I thought. Perhaps Vancouver and Seattle are about equally inconvenient to you

Nothing going on at Western Washington? Agitate!