Congressional Record: March 14, 2006 (Senate)
Page S2124


 
          STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS

      By Mr. SANTORUM:
  S. 2408. A bill to require the Director of National Intelligence to 
release documents captured in Afghanistan or Iraq during Operation 
Desert Storm, Operation Enduring Freedom, or Operation Iraqi Freedom; 
to the Select Committee on Intelligence.
  Mr. SANTORUM. Mr. President, I rise today to offer remarks on 
legislation that I am introducing today here in the Senate.
  This legislation concerns the need to release military documents and 
photographs recovered in Iraq and Afghanistan. Specifically, the bill 
requires the Director of National Intelligence to make publicly 
available on an Internet website documents captured in Afghanistan or 
Iraq during Operation Desert Storm, Operation Enduring Freedom, or 
Operation Iraqi Freedom.
  In my conversations with President Bush and Secretary of Defense 
Rumsfeld, I urged that efforts to examine these documents and 
photographs be accelerated. With U.S. and Coalition forces actively 
engaged in Iraq, the analysis and release of these documents should be 
made a top priority within the Department of Defense.
  Recently, I gave a speech at the Valley Forge Military Academy in 
Pennsylvania concerning ongoing military operations in Iraq and 
detailed why we must prevail. In my speech, I noted that U.S. and 
Coalition forces are fighting the forces of Islamic fascism and those 
who seek to overthrow the values and beliefs that civilized nations 
cherish. In short, this is a battle we cannot afford to lose.
  By way of background, The Weekly Standard published several articles 
detailing a number of these documents and the information contained 
within them which ``connect the dots'' between Saddam Hussein and the 
training of Islamic terrorists. Among the points highlighted in a 
recent The Weekly Standard article:

       The photographs and documents on Iraqi training camps come 
     from a collection of some 2 million ``exploitable items'' 
     captured in postwar Iraq and Afghanistan. They include 
     handwritten notes, typed documents, audiotapes, videotapes, 
     compact discs, floppy discs, and computer hard drives . . . 
     Nearly three years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, only 
     50,000 of these 2 million ``exploitable items'' have been 
     thoroughly examined.

  Many of the translated and analyzed documents were entered into a 
government database known as ``HARMONY.'' It is now 4 years since these 
documents were captured. I understand that previous requests to release 
information from the HARMONY database have been rejected or delayed. It 
is reasonable to assume that over the course of the last 4 years any 
actionable intelligence contained within these documents has already 
been exploited.
  It is imperative that documents captured in Iraq which highlight the 
connections between Saddam Hussein's brutal regime and Islamic 
terrorists be released as soon as possible. These documents are 
increasingly necessary to help the American people understand both the 
reasons for our involvement in Iraq and the challenge of defending 
freedom and democracy.
  However, in the interest of national security, the bill permits the 
Director of National Intelligence to withhold making a document 
publicly available--provided he informs the relevant congressional 
committees of the justification for not disclosing the document.
                                 ______
 
 

S 2408 IS

To require the Director of National Intelligence to release documents captured in Afghanistan or Iraq during Operation Desert Storm, Operation Enduring Freedom, or Operation Iraqi Freedom.

March 14, 2006

Mr. SANTORUM introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Select Committee on Intelligence

To require the Director of National Intelligence to release documents captured in Afghanistan or Iraq during Operation Desert Storm, Operation Enduring Freedom, or Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. RELEASE OF DOCUMENTS CAPTURED IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN.

(a) In General- The Director of National Intelligence shall make publicly available on an Internet website all captured documents.

(b) Review by Director of National Intelligence- The Director of National Intelligence may review a captured document before making such document publicly available under subsection (a). The Director shall not be required to make a captured document publicly available under subsection (a) if--

(1) in the case of a captured document that is reviewed by the Director before the date of the enactment of this Act, the Director submits to the relevant congressional committees a description of the criteria the Director used to determine it is not appropriate to make a captured document publicly available and such captured document meets such criteria; or

(2) in the case of a captured document that is reviewed by the Director on or after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Director submits to the relevant congressional committees a description of the criteria the Director shall use to determine if it is not appropriate to make a captured document publicly available and the captured document meets such criteria.

(c) Submission of Description of Non-Released Documents-

(1) REVIEW BEFORE DATE OF ENACTMENT- Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Director of National Intelligence shall submit to the relevant congressional committees a report containing--

(A) a description of each captured document that, before such date, the Director determined should not be made publicly available; and

(B) an explanation as to why the Director does not consider it appropriate to make such captured document publicly available.

(2) REVIEW AFTER DATE OF ENACTMENT- Not later than 30 days after the Director of National Intelligence determines that a captured document should not be made publicly available pursuant to subsection (b)(2), the Director shall submit to the relevant congressional committees a report containing a description of such captured document and an explanation as to why the Director does not consider it appropriate to make such document publicly available.

(3) REQUEST FOR DOCUMENT- The Director of National Intelligence shall make a copy of each captured document available to the relevant congressional committees for review upon request of the Chairman of any of such relevant congressional committees. The Director shall make such copy available in either classified or unclassified form.

(d) Publication or Review Date-

(1) IN GENERAL- The Director of National Intelligence shall begin making captured documents publicly available pursuant to subsection (a) not later than 30 days after the date of the enactment of this Act.

(2) DOCUMENTS COLLECTED PRIOR TO DATE OF ENACTMENT-

(A) IN GENERAL- Not later than the date described in subparagraph (B), for each captured document captured or collected before the date of the enactment of this Act, the Director of National Intelligence shall make such captured document publicly available pursuant to subsection (a) or shall submit to the relevant congressional committees a report regarding such captured document pursuant to subsection (c).

(B) DATES- The date described in this subparagraph is--

(i) September 30, 2006, for captured documents captured or collected during Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom; and

(ii) March 31, 2007, for captured documents captured or collected during Operation Desert Storm.

(3) DOCUMENTS COLLECTED AFTER DATE OF ENACTMENT- For each captured document that is captured or collected on or after the date of the enactment of this Act, not later than 60 days after the date on which such captured document is captured or collected, the Director of National Intelligence shall make such captured document publicly available pursuant to subsection (a) or shall submit to the relevant congressional committees a report regarding such captured document pursuant to subsection (c).

(e) Weekly Report- Not later than 7 days after the date of enactment of this Act, and weekly thereafter until each captured document captured or collected before the date of the enactment of this Act is made publicly available pursuant to subsection (a) or described in a report submitted pursuant to subsection (c), the Director of National Intelligence shall submit to the relevant congressional committees a report describing the progress in making captured documents publicly available.

(f) Definitions- In this section:

(1) CAPTURED DOCUMENT- The term `captured document' means a document captured or collected in Afghanistan or Iraq, including a document collected from the Government of Iraq or from a private person and including a document in electronic form, during Operation Desert Storm, Operation Enduring Freedom, and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

(2) RELEVANT CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES- The term `relevant congressional committees' means the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of the House of Representatives and Select Committee on Intelligence of the Senate.

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