CIA Will Cover Legal Fees (Panetta: For Officers Ensnared in Interrogation Probe)

[Hissyspit]

Source: Washington Post

CIA Will Cover Legal Fees
Policy Will Help Officers Ensnared in Interrogation Probe

By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 28, 2009
CIA Director Leon Panetta decided Thursday that the agency will ensure legal representation for case officers who become caught up in investigations of alleged interrogation abuses of detainees at overseas locations, a senior intelligence official said.

Panetta's decision follows Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.'s appointment of a special prosecutor earlier this week to conduct a preliminary review of whether federal laws were violated during the interrogations. When working on controversial assignments, many CIA officers take out personal liability insurance, which sometimes reimburses legal fees if they face lawsuits or criminal charges, but others do not.

"Panetta will do everything he can to ensure that anyone who needs legal representation has it, whether they have liability insurance or not," said the senior intelligence official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak before the decision is publicly announced. "It's a question of fairness. People who did tough jobs for the country won't be left by the side of the road."

The new federal inquiry will be conducted by Assistant U.S. Attorney John H. Durham, who since 2008 has been investigating the destruction of CIA videotapes of detainees undergoing waterboarding.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/27/AR2009082704071.html

[napi21]

1. That's only fair. All my legal bills were paid by the co

I worked for, even though I didn't even think I needed a lawyer. Our co. was being investigated by the SEC and I knew I didn't do anything wrong.

[No Elephants]

5. These guys know they did wrong.

[MidwestTransplant]

2. How about investigating their bosses like Cheney for instance.

[orleans]

3. .

"Panetta will do everything he can to ensure that anyone who needs legal representation has it, whether they have liability insurance or not,"

well, they're definitely gonna need it.

however, i don't want tax money paying for the legal representation of the fuckhead and cheney--or any of their direct crewe/cast of characters.

[Hubert Flottz]

9. I hope Leon has lots of money because

I don't want my tax dollars to be spent defending torturers and murderers. We can spend money of that shit and we can't afford to take care of sick veterans?

[autorank]

4. Abuse Issue Puts the Justice Dept. and C.I.A. at Odds

Source: New York Times

By PETER BAKER, DAVID JOHNSTON and MARK MAZZETTI August 28, 2009

WASHINGTON — With the appointment of a prosecutor to investigate detainee abuses, long-simmering conflicts between the Central Intelligence Agency and the Justice Department burst into plain view this week, threatening relations between two critical players on President Obama’s national security team.

Snip

The strains became evident inside the administration in the past several weeks. In July, Leon E. Panetta, the C.I.A. director, tried to head off the investigation, administration officials said. He sent the C.I.A.’s top lawyer, Stephen W. Preston, to Justice to persuade aides to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to abandon any plans for an inquiry.

Mr. Preston presented what was, in effect, a closing argument in defense of the C.I.A., contending that many potential cases against intelligence operatives were legally flawed and noting that they had already been investigated, some more than once. In none, he said, had prosecutors found grounds for charges.

But the Justice Department was unmoved, officials said. Despite the C.I.A. pressure and the stated desire of the White House not to dwell on the past, Mr. Holder went ahead with an investigation that will determine whether agents broke the law in their brutal interrogations.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/28/us/politics/28intel.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

---

:popcorn:

[No Elephants]

6. Panetta? CIA? "American taxpayers to pay legal fees" is the truth of the matter.

This is a spending bill. Maybe Congress should have to decide.

[NecklyTyler]

7. Pay the bills for the innocent

Put the guilty in jail

Somewhere along the line, a defendant will turn State's evidence and Cheney will go to jail

[Thucydides]

8. Well put, you have a valid point. Anyone found guilty should have

to be made to pay back all legal fees. They would also probably be more inclined to "work a deal" so to speak.

Those that are found innocent would have nothing to fear and could speak freely about what they know. Each person has a piece of the puzzle,that once put together, would paint a much broader picture.

:fistbump:

[Vidar]

12. Great idea.

[fasttense]

10. When I worked for the federal government there was a catch 22 in legal assistance.

If you were charged for doing something in the course of your official duties, the federal government would pick up the tab. But if you were charged for doing something OUTSIDE your duties, the government would NOT pick up the legal fees. And here's the catch... If you were found guilty of breaking the law or committing a crime, the government would NOT pick up the cost of your legal fees because breaking the law was OUTSIDE your official duties.

But that was about 10 years ago, before the bush turned the federal government into one giant ponzi scheme for corporations.

But I really feel the headline is very misleading. It should read: TAXPAYERS TO FOOT THE BILL FOR TORTURE

[Solly Mack]

11. From 2006:Worried CIA Officers Buy Legal Insurance

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/10/AR2006091001286.html

CIA counterterrorism officers have signed up in growing numbers for a government-reimbursed, private insurance plan that would pay their civil judgments and legal expenses if they are sued or charged with criminal wrongdoing, according to current and former intelligence officials and others with knowledge of the program.


The insurance policies were bought from Arlington-based Wright and Co., a subsidiary of the private Special Agents Mutual Benefit Association created by former FBI officials. The CIA has encouraged many of its officers to take out the insurance, current and former intelligence officials said, but no one interviewed would reveal precisely how many have bought policies.

As part of the administration's efforts to protect intelligence officers from liability, Bush last week called for Congress to approve legislation drafted by the White House that would exempt CIA officers and other federal civilian officials from prosecution for humiliating and degrading terrorism suspects in U.S. custody. Its wording would keep prosecutors or courts from considering a wider definition of actions that constitute torture.

Bush also asked Congress to bar federal courts from considering lawsuits by detainees who were in CIA or military custody that allege violations of international treaties and laws governing treatment of detainees.

[Crowman1979]

13. You'd figure all of that laundered drug money would help pay for those legal bills.

But no, the CIA just screws the public as usual.