For Immediate Release:
December 18, 2010
 
Contacts: Rev. Richard Killmer, NRCAT, (207) 450-7242, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Alanna Sobel, NRCAT, (202) 265-3000, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

National Religious Leaders Question CIA’s Decision to Pay Millions of Taxpayer Dollars to Defend Torture Program Architects

WASHINGTON – In response to recent news reports that the CIA agreed to cover at least $5 million in legal fees for two psychologists, Jim Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, who were the architects of the agency’s interrogation program, Rev. Richard L. Killmer, Executive Director of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture released the following statement:

“Today's allegations that the CIA authorized $5 million in government funds to pay the legal costs of the architects of the CIA's torture program demand a full and public accounting.  If the CIA believed waterboarding was acceptable, then why did the agency feel the need to authorize five million tax-payer dollars to defend the interrogation program’s architects from legal proceedings? What exactly did these two psychologists do for the CIA?  How much of what they did was illegal?

Allegations of this nature are exactly why we need a non-partisan commission of inquiry to investigate our nation’s past use of torture and to make recommendations for safeguards that will ensure that it never happens again.  U.S. taxpayer dollars should not fund the legal defense of those who acted illegally and immorally when they decided to use torture.”

According to today’s Associated Press report, the psychologists Jim Mitchell and Bruce Jessen helped design and implement the CIA’s interrogation program and were personally involved in the waterboarding of multiple detainees

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