[Congressional Record: August 1, 2008 (Senate)]
[Page S8044-S8045]
STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS
By Mrs. FEINSTEIN (for herself, Mr. Rockefeller, Mr. Whitehouse,
Mr. Hagel, Mr. Feingold, and Mr. Wyden):
S. 3437. A bill to limit the use of certain interrogation techniques,
to require notification of the International Committee of the Red Cross
of detainees, to prohibit interrogation by contractors, and for other
purposes; to the Select Committee on Intelligence.
Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, today, Senators Rockefeller, Whitehouse,
Hagel, Feingold and I introduce legislation to end coercive
interrogations and secret detentions by the Central Intelligence
Agency.
These practices have brought shame to our Nation, have harmed our
ability to fight the war on terror, and, I believe, violate U.S. law
and international treaty obligations.
It is time to repudiate torture and secret disappearances. It is time
to end the outsourcing of coercive interrogations to the lowest bidder.
It is time to return to the norms and values that have driven the
United States to greatness for decades, but have been tarnished in the
past 7 years.
It is now public knowledge that the Bush administration, in the Vice
President's words, turned to ``the dark side.'' The ``gloves came
off.'' In the name of counterterrorism, the CIA resorted to
waterboarding--an interrogation technique invented in the Spanish
Inquisition to force false confessions and punish enemies.
In a mistaken effort to gain better intelligence, the CIA used this
same technique that the Justice Department has prosecuted and the State
Department has decried overseas. The administration used warped logic
and faulty reasoning to say waterboarding technique was not torture. It
is.
Waterboarding is the only technique to be publicly confirmed by this
administration. There are others that have not been acknowledged but
are still authorized for use. This has to end.
But we will never turn this sad page in our Nation's history until
all coercive techniques are banned, and are replaced with a single,
clear, uniform standard across the United States Government.
That standard is the one set out in the Army Field Manual. Its
techniques work for the military and for the Federal Bureau of
Investigation. If the CIA would abide by its terms, it would work for
the CIA as well.
The first provision in this legislation requires the Intelligence
Community to follow the Army Field Manual. That is already the law for
the Department of Defense.
It is supported by 43 retired generals and admirals and by a
bipartisan group of former Secretaries of State and Defense,
Ambassadors, and national security advisors.
[[Page S8045]]
Majorities in both houses of Congress passed this provision earlier
this year, sending a clear message that we do not support coercive
interrogations. Regrettably, the President's veto stopped it from
becoming law.
The second provision in this legislation requires that access to any
detainee being held by the intelligence community be provided to
members of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Access by the ICRC is a hallmark of international law and is required
by the Geneva Conventions. We believe that granting access to the ICRC
is the best way to ensure that the same right will be afforded to U.S.
forces if they are ever captured overseas.
But ICRC access has been denied at CIA black sites in the war on
terror. This has, in part, opened the door to the abuses in detainee
treatment. Independent access prevents abuses like we witnessed at Abu
Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. It is time that the same protection is in
place for the CIA as well, in the well-established rules that the
military has used for years.
Finally, this legislation contains a ban on contractor interrogators
at the CIA. As General Hayden has testified, the CIA uses outside
contractors to conduct these interrogations.
We should not be using coercive interrogation techniques at all. But
I firmly believe that outsourcing these interrogations to private
companies is a way to diminish accountability and to avoid getting the
Agency's hands dirty. I also believe that the use of contractors leads
to more brutal interrogations than if they were done by Government
employees.
We remain a nation at war, and credible, actionable intelligence
remains a cornerstone of our war effort. But that is not what the CIA
detention and interrogation program has provided.
Every single experienced interrogator tells us that coercive
techniques will get someone to say what the interrogator wants to hear.
But that doesn't make it true.
In fact, coercive interrogations and the threat of torture produced
the information that Saddam Hussein was providing al Qaeda with WMD
training. That wasn't true, but it helped lead us to war in Iraq.
Military and FBI interrogators also tell us that when they build a
rapport with a detainee, they get more information, and more valuable
information, than when it is coerced.
Beyond that, our Nation has paid an enormous price because of these
interrogations. They cast shadow and doubt over our ideals and our
system of justice. Our enemies have used our practices to recruit more
extremists. Our key global partnerships, crucial to winning the war on
terror, have been strained.
Look at two of our closest allies in the world. The British
Parliament no longer trusts U.S. assurances that we will not torture
detainees. The Canadian Government recently added the United States to
its list of nations that conduct torture.
This is not the country that we want to be. Torture and
disappearances do not befit the nation that I know.
It is time to restore America's integrity.
It will take time to resume our place as the world's beacon of
liberty and justice. This bill will put us on that path and start the
process. I urge its passage.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be
printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be
printed in the Record, as follows:
S. 3437
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Restoring America's
Integrity Act''.
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Instrumentality.--The term ``instrumentality'', with
respect to an element of the intelligence community, means a
contractor or subcontractor at any tier of the element of the
intelligence community.
(2) Intelligence community.--The term ``intelligence
community'' has the meaning given that term in section 3(4)
of the National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 401a(4)).
SEC. 3. LIMITATION ON INTERROGATION TECHNIQUES.
No individual in the custody or under the effective control
of personnel of an element of the intelligence community or
instrumentality of an element of the intelligence community,
regardless of nationality or physical location of such
individual or personnel, shall be subject to any treatment or
technique of interrogation not authorized by the United
States Army Field Manual on Human Intelligence Collector
Operations.
SEC. 4. NOTIFICATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE
RED CROSS.
(a) Requirement.--The head of an element of the
intelligence community or an instrumentality of such element
who detains or has custody or effective control of an
individual shall notify the International Committee of the
Red Cross of the detention of the individual and provide
access to such individual in a manner consistent with the
practices of the Armed Forces.
(b) Construction.--Nothing in this section shall be
construed--
(1) to create or otherwise imply the authority to detain;
or
(2) to limit or otherwise affect any other rights or
obligations which may arise under the Geneva Conventions,
other international agreements, or other laws, or to state
all of the situations under which notification to and access
for the International Committee of the Red Cross is required
or allowed.
SEC. 5. PROHIBITION ON INTERROGATIONS BY CONTRACTORS.
The Director of the Central Intelligence Agency may not
permit a contractor or subcontractor to the Central
Intelligence Agency to carry out an interrogation of an
individual. Any interrogation carried out on behalf of the
Central Intelligence Agency shall be conducted by an employee
of such Agency.
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