Legal deal over harsh CIA interrogations marks a milestone
SPOKANE, Wash. — A settlement in a landmark lawsuit against two psychologists who helped design the CIA’s harsh interrogation methods used in the war on terror marked the first time the agency or its private contractors have been held accountable for the program, legal experts said Thursday.
The deal in the lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union also makes it unlikely the CIA will again pursue the tactics, which included beatings and waterboarding, said Deborah Pearlstein, professor at the Cardozo Law School in New York.
“This sends a signal to those who might consider doing this in the future,” Pearlstein said, adding, “This puts an exclamation mark at the end of ‘don’t torture.’”
Terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but it avoided a civil trial set for Sept. 5 in federal court in Spokane.