CIA Director Panetta bars private contractors from questioning terror suspects

[babylonsister]

CIA bars private contractors from questioning terror suspects

By Jonathan S. Landay | McClatchy Newspapers


WASHINGTON — CIA Director Leon Panetta on Thursday told employees of the spy agency that private contractors will no longer be permitted to interrogate suspected terrrorists and that the agency is seeking to close down what remains of its secret network of detention centers.

In an e-mail to employees, Panetta said he had notified the Senate and House intelligence committees that private contractors would no longer conduct interrogations of what he called "captured terrorists."

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.

Panetta also said the CIA has "proposed a plan to decomission the remaining sites" in the agency's secret detention system where the Bush administration held several dozen suspected terrorists in the years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Panetta said no prisoners were being housed at the facilities, but that private security companies were still guarding the facilities. Terminating those contracts will save U.S. taxpayers $4 million, Panetta said.

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http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/65839.html

[aquart]

1. Yeah, the cost cutting is nice, too.

[babylonsister]

2. Thanks, Rachel! nt