Col. Flagg: I'm with the CIC.
Maj. Frank Burns: Not the CIA?
Col. Flagg: No. I just tell people that so they'll think I'm with the CID.
* * * *
Col. Flagg: I'm with the CID. Although I told your boss I was with the CIA. It throws people off who think I'm with the CIC.
Capt. Hawkeye Pierce: Well, I'll go along with you there.
- from M*A*S*H, "A Smattering of Intelligence"
Back in Colonel Flagg's day (the early 1950s), the business of conducting interrogations to extract valuable intelligence was left to government employees. The last eight years, however, have seen a dramatic rise in the use of private contractors for sensitive national security functions.
Last week, as part of the Intelligence Authorization bill (H.R. 5959), the House passed a measure to prohibit private contractors working for the intelligence community from participating in certain prisoner detention operations. The measure would prohibit intelligence agencies from outsourcing the arrest, interrogation, detention, transfer, and rendition of prisoners. The bill would also require the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to provide Congress with an annual census of the number of contractors involved in intelligence work, the activities they perform, the cost associated with their work, and an account of the intelligence agencies' efforts to hold contractors accountable for misconduct. The House passed a similar prohibition for Defense Department contractors as part of the Defense Authorization bill in May.
All of this comes in the midst of major scandals involving the use of private contractors in international prisoner interrogations. Both CACI International and Titan Corporation (acquired by L-3 Communications in 2005) are involved in lawsuits filed on behalf of Iraqis who claim that they or family members were murdered, tortured, and subjected to other abuses by CACI and Titan employees while detained at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
As Rep. David Price (D-NC), a sponsor of the measure, explained in a press release last week:
"We need to take a hard look at the contracting of sensitive intelligence operations to private companies, and make sure that we are not outsourcing activities that are inherently governmental and critically important to our national security. At a minimum, the interrogation of detainees should be carried out by individuals who are well-trained, fall within a clear chain of command, and have a sworn loyalty to the United States--not by corporate, for-profit contractors."
Rep. Price acknowledges the necessity of intelligence community contracting, but wants to put it "back on a rational and stable footing" by introducing more stringent oversight.
-- Neil Gordon
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