If you're a toymaker, and your contractor in China subcontracts out the painting and lead paint is used on your product, then you shouldn't be able to say you were victimized.

Likewise, if you are the greatest nation in the world and you send prisoners -- errr, detainees -- to countries that have a tradition of torturing people, then you shouldn't be able to say "Oops, we didn't know." Even better, this administration has actually said "These countries assured us they wouldn't torture these prisoners." What? Because we asked them to, they were going to play nice?

The neocons and the Bushies have trashed America. God knows how long it will take us to recover.

John Kiriakou, ex CIA contractor?

If I were a contractor, I'd be worried because quailified immunuity would not be extended to non-government officials if this ever came trial.

@12:37 pm

Not yet, anyway. Of course there are always two sides to a murder case.

Admitted on the record violation of the Geneva Conventions? Well that's a whole 'nuther matter...

"extensive use of outside contractors"
CIA paying for mercenaries is not exactly new information.
What is new is the admission that
"large corporations also are involved"
basically admitting there is no difference between business, spy agency, government and military.

"use of contracting at the CIA's secret sites increased quickly" after 9-11.
So how long and how much has CIA contracted hit men BEFORE 9-11?

Any guess as to which large corporations are running this this country...??

Seriously we need some TPM'ers who have some legal background to weigh in on the legal issues involved in these incidents as well as Blackwater. To me it looks like we used contractors because 1)we can put that money in the private sector which is something that GWB and friends have liked 2) it loosens some of the bounds by which a government officer is required to act but a contractor is a whole other ball of wax.
So we contracted out Security to Blackwater and other companies who operated outside the law and who employ former guerillas from Latin American countries like mercernaries, and now we found out that we are torturing people with mercenaries as well. Does GWB support the troops, hell no, he outsourced their jobs!

My guess is that this is yet another dodge by an administration and its supporters who take no responsibility for their actions. Apparently what Bush meant when he said, "We do not torture", was "We do not torture, but they (the contractors) do, but not us. So we're not liable for the myriad legal and human rights violations".

I'm confused. Bu$hco can use contractors to torture people, but if I hire a contractor who happens to kill my husband, I get indicted for murder? Maybe I should be using Blackwater instead of Big Tony for my "contracting" needs.

Thank Dianne Feinstein for her efforts. Thank Russ Feingold and Christopher Dodd for their efforts to strike telecom immunity from the FISA legislation.

Impeach Bush/Cheney. I don't care if they only have one more year. We cannot let them get away with it, or it'll just happen again, under the stroke of a different pen.

We have to be very diligent about holding Congress and this exec. administration responsible--on every vote and every issue. We've lost too much already, and there's a lot more at stake.

http://www.whatsinthatkoolaid.blogspot.com/

Nevermind walking for peace.

Have we marched for IMPEACHMENT yet???

The problem with these types of reports is that we as a public are expected to continue to tolerate these intrusions from the CIA contractors; yet, when the public is asked to support this war on terror with actions, the very sytem supposedly designed to protect US appears more inclined to target the people once inclined to step forward and work in government. The US government appears more competent at making the problem worse, than in lawfully using options to lead American citizens.

It's also absurd to believe that Congress is serious about conducting oversight. They may have subpoena power, but that power is not enforced -- per the DOJ AG's statements. If there are abuses by the CIA contractors, Congress is not inclined to do more than write more memos.

What's the plan to have the third branch, the judicial branch more visibly involved with public oversight of the CIA contractors operating stateside?

What is the process to reconcile misrepresentations by the CIA-affiliated contractors when they attempt to shift attention from their misconduct, illegal disclosures, or entrapment; and they attempt to pretend that "someone else" has the problem?

What role do these contractors have in domestic surveillance, FISA violations, and the capture-use of illegally captured information?

Are the contractors using illegally captured information to "justify" abuses against US citizens?

What type of coercion are these contractors using stateside against US citizens?

Is the use of civilian contractors in the US as domestic surveillance, monitoring, and confrontation part of Gonzalez "other" programs which he said he could not talk about?

Are the CIA contractors part of the civilianization of the US domestic national security effort; and to what extent have contractors been used to complement the CIA's domestic warrantless interrogation role they assumed as the wall between the FBI and CIA came down?

Are contractors doing domestically the same things done in Eastern Europe, abuses which the US supposedly was "fighting against" during the Cold War?

To what extent are CIA domestic contractors engaged in domestic surveillance using pretextual reasons, misleading information, and dubious claims of "concerns with national security" as a ruse to justify greater intrusions?

Who oversees this domestic surveillance by US contractors directed at non-combatant US civilians?

To what extent have contractors been authorized to lie, rely on secret accusations, and use things like NSLs to gather evidence which the FBI and CIA are not lawfully/as easily able to do?

Is there a plan in place to do as was done under FISA: Create a separate "Presidential program" that bypasses the court; and does not ensure CIA contractors are fully respecting the Constitutional rights of all American citizens?

How is the information the telecoms are gathering through NSA-related contractors meshed with the other domestic CIA-affiliated contractors?

When there is abuse of this information transfer and US citizens are targeted for intrusions, surveillance, pretextual stops, and other alleged illegal intrusions without adequate court oversight, who oversees the contractor systems?

Is the same judicial system that has given the President a blank check on national security issues, or been bypassed as it was in re NSA-FISA violations also characterizing these domestic contractors affiliated with the CIA as a state secret and not something the courts will adjudicate?

Who is keeping tabs on whether the CIA affiliated contractors operating in the US are or are not adequately complying with the statute?

Who issued the guidance and policies overseeing these CIA contractors?

Where are copies of the oversight guidelines and policies issued/enforced in re the CIA's domestic use of contractors against US citizens in the United States?

Is it the expectation of the government that all abuses the CIA contractors operating in the US are alleged to be complicit will be granted immunity under this "contractor telecom immunity"-bill?

To what extent is the FISA immunity bill intended to broadly apply to known illegal conduct of CIA-affiliated contractors, engaged in alleged abuses which have yet to be understood?

Has Congress, when it discusses the FISA-immunity provisions for telecoms, specifically constrained the immunity only to FISA-related violations; or is the immunity a broad grant of immunity that could include to-be-understood CIA-affiliated contractor abuses which violate the US Constitution/Bill of Rights?

Can someone provide a good explanation why anyone should believe there is a real difference between the CIFA, JTTF, CIA, and the CIA domestic contractors; or that the Congress or Courts are adequately positioned to adequately oversee these CIA contractors and ensure full compliance with all US codes clearly establishing the Bill of Rights?

What's the plan of DHS, JTTF, local law enforcement, and the CIA contractors to openly discuss the information transfers designed to surveil, harass, intrude, and monitor US citizen conduct?

What is the process US citizens can follow when the CIA contractors are involved with efforts to provide and use unreliable information to harass US citizens, induce compliance with unreasonable policies, or dissuade public discussion on matters of public interest?

i'm surprised that nobody's said it flat out, but if you're talking contractors, blackwater must be involved. that's clearly the hint here, and why not? it only makes sense, considering they are the private guards for high-level state department officials, and seem immune to criticism or scandal. they have an insurance policy against scandal: their willing participation in US government-sanctioned torture.