CIA Employees Worried About Torture Ramifications

Employees at the Central Intelligence Agency are signing up for government sponsored legal plan which would pay judgements against them should they be sued for their activites related to torture and gulags.

The new enrollments reflect heightened anxiety at the CIA that officers may be vulnerable to accusations they were involved in abuse, torture, human rights violations and other misconduct, including wrongdoing related to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. They worry that they will not have Justice Department representation in court or congressional inquiries, the officials said.

I thought the President just said he never authorized the use of torture. Didn't Bush just say in that huge speech last week that his Administration didn't engage in torture? Why then do these agents and operatives feel such an urgent need to insure themselves? Why then is Bush pushing the following through Congress:

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.

I smell another Bush lie. As always you cannot listen to what Bush says, you must look at what he does for the truth. There would be no need for either of these programs if we weren't subjecting captives to torture.