The el-Masri case underscores continuing legal threats facing CIA officials overseas despite last week’s deal on a bill that would authorize the agency to continue using aggressive interrogation techniques. The White House says the measure is needed to provide legal protection for CIA officials accused of violating the Geneva Conventions. But the bill may do little to protect officers involved in “extraordinary renditions”–a practice under which the agency has flown terror suspects to foreign countries where they have allegedly been harshly interrogated.
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