US: CIA officers are increasingly concerned they might be prosecuted or punished for their conduct during interrogations and detention of terrorism suspects, the New York Times has reported.
Citing current and former government officials, the newspaper reported yesterday that the spy agency's inspector general was now reviewing at least half a dozen cases in connection with the treatment of prisoners.
This is in addition to at least two other CIA cases being investigated by the Justice Department - one stemming from a death in Afghanistan in 2003 and the other from Iraq.
"There's a lot more out there than has generally been recognised, and people at the agency are worried," one government official told the paper.
According to the newspaper, the CIA was especially worried that officers using interrogation techniques the government ruled as acceptable after the September 11th, 2001, attacks might now be punishable.
Concern within ranks had increased since December 2003, when the agency removed its station chief in Baghdad, in part due to the deaths of two Iraqis who had been questioned by the CIA officers, officials said.
The removal of the chief, who is not under any kind of criminal scrutiny, occurred nearly four months before the abuse at Abu Ghraib prison became public, reported the newspaper.
Officials told the newspaper that some of the cases under review have never been publicly disclosed, but they would not give any more details including whether they were limited to incidents in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Justice Department officials said only that several cases involving civilian employees of the government had been referred to the department, the paper said.
In testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee earlier this month, CIA director Porter Goss declined to say how many reviews of possible misconduct involving prisoners were under way.
He said that while one case had been made public, "a bunch of other cases" were now under review by the inspector general.