CIA Director 'Fires' Military Contractors From Interrogating Terror Detainees

Posted by Liliana Segura, AlterNet at 5:16 PM on April 9, 2009.

CIA Director Leon Panetta has "banned" private military contractors from questioning prisoners held in in U.S. custody, media outlets reported Thursday.
"The CIA has stopped using contractors to interrogate prisoners and fired private security guards at the CIA's now-shuttered secret overseas prisons, agency Director Leon Panetta said," according to the Associated Press.
Alerting his employees via e-mail, Panetta said the move will "save the agency $4 million." However, "the CIA refused to provide details about the contract, including its total value and the company or companies that were fired."
At first glance this appears to be a pretty minor gesture, given that the secret prisons reportedly no longer hold any prisoners. But as the New York Times reported in January -- and as some critics of Obama’s executive orders to shutter the CIA "black sites" have pointed out -- "Obama’s order on the C.I.A. would still allow its officers abroad to temporarily detain terrorism suspects and transfer them to other agencies." How long is "temporarily" remains unclear; but Panetta’s announcement means that such prisoners "will be interrogated by agency employees, not private contractors, and then quickly handed over to the U.S. military, or to their home countries or countries that have legal claims on them," according to the AP.
Private military contractors have long been known to carry out interrogations for both the CIA and the Department of Defense. In 2004, CorpWatch reported that interrogators working for two major defense contractors were allegedly responsible for "close to one-third of the torture and abuse incidents [at] Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq."

"Of the 44 documented incidents, from July 2003 to February 2004," according to a report by the U.S. military, "interrogators employed by CACI International, Inc., of Arlington, Virginia, and translators working for Titan Corporation of San Diego, California, [were] accused of being connected to 16."
In 2008, then-CIA director Michael Hayden was asked during an appearance before a House committee whether private contractors had been responsible for waterboarding terror suspects. "I'm not sure of the specifics," he said. “I'll give you a tentative answer: I believe so."
According to McClatchy, "Panetta's decision follows expressions of concern by some lawmakers about the CIA's use of contract interrogators, one of whom, David Passaro, was convicted in 2006 of abusing an Afghan detainee in 2003 at a remote U.S. base in Afghanistan. The detainee later died."
Ironically, Panetta’s claim that the CIA will "not tolerate, and will continue to promptly report, any inappropriate behavior or allegations of abuse" comes at the same time that he is working to suppress investigations into the CIA torture under Bush. As John Sifton reports at The Daily Beast, "a number of CIA officials implicated in the torture program not only remain at the highest levels of the agency, but are also advising Panetta."

"Panetta’s refusal to investigate may be intended to protect his deputies. Since the basic facts about their involvement in the CIA interrogation program are now known, Panetta’s actions are increasingly looking like a cover-up."

Tagged as: cia, torture, caci, abu ghraib, waterboarding, michael hayden, interrogations, leon panetta, titan

Liliana Segura is a staff writer and editor of AlterNet's Rights and Liberties and War on Iraq Special Coverage.