Liability insurance for spooks
Satan is a lawyer.
When Jose A. Rodriguez Jr. came under investigation
for ordering the destruction of Central Intelligence Agency interrogation
videotapes, one of his first calls was to a small Virginia insurance company that thrives on
government trouble.
Like a growing number of C.I.A. employees, Mr. Rodriguez, former head of the agency’s clandestine service, had bought professional liability insurance from Wright & Company. The firm, founded in 1965 by a former F.B.I. agent, is now paying his mounting legal bills.
The standard Wright policy costs a little less than $300 a year. The government pays half the premium for all supervisors and certain other high-risk employees, a group that includes hundreds of C.I.A. officers, including everyone at the agency involved in counterterrorism or counterproliferation.
The more scandal official Washington produces, the better for Wright’s niche business for federal employees. Every whiff of investigation or litigation drives additional nervous federal workers to the company’s door…
I’m not certain if this article is about a positive or negative symptom? Certainly our knee jerk reliance on lawsuits sucks. And anything that makes insurance companies happy - usually sucks double.
Are lawsuits all we have left to replace Congressional oversight?
Like a growing number of C.I.A. employees, Mr. Rodriguez, former head of the agency’s clandestine service, had bought professional liability insurance from Wright & Company. The firm, founded in 1965 by a former F.B.I. agent, is now paying his mounting legal bills.
The standard Wright policy costs a little less than $300 a year. The government pays half the premium for all supervisors and certain other high-risk employees, a group that includes hundreds of C.I.A. officers, including everyone at the agency involved in counterterrorism or counterproliferation.
The more scandal official Washington produces, the better for Wright’s niche business for federal employees. Every whiff of investigation or litigation drives additional nervous federal workers to the company’s door…
I’m not certain if this article is about a positive or negative symptom? Certainly our knee jerk reliance on lawsuits sucks. And anything that makes insurance companies happy - usually sucks double.
Are lawsuits all we have left to replace Congressional oversight?
Posted: Sun - January 20, 2008 at 06:51 AM