Bush Administration Brings Big Biz to Liability InsurerJust part of the Bush administration economic stimulus plan: big business for companies insuring federal workers. From The New York Times:
When Al Qaeda attacked the United States in 2001, Wright & Company was insuring about 17,000 federal employees against the legal hazards of their work. Today, that total has nearly doubled to 32,000, Wright executives say, spurred in part by a spate of lawsuits, investigations and criminal prosecutions related to mistreatment of detainees from Iraq to Guantánamo Bay, an immigration crackdown and other aftershocks of 9/11. The insurance is popular with F.B.I. agents, Secret Service officers, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement workers as well as C.I.A. officers.
âThe things that help us are any negative events related to the federal government, and there have been plenty,â said Bryan B. Lewis, Wrightâs president and chief executive, who holds a security clearance that allows him to discuss his clientsâ secret business.
Yes, times are good.
One of the latest to draw on his policy is Jose Rodriguez, the former CIA official who ordered the destruction of the torture tapes. He’s used it to pay for heavy-hitter Bob Bennett, the Times reports, though how long that’s going to last him, nobody knows (Bennett charges up to $900 per hour). He’s covered for up to $200,000 in fees to represent him against Congress’ probe, and $100,000 in fees for the criminal probe.
