[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 56 (Tuesday, April 23, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2894-S2895]
CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE
Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. President, I rise to recognize an
important anniversary--the 25th anniversary of the signing of the
Convention Against Torture--and would like to do so in the context of
the recent publication of an important report on the U.S. policies and
programs put in place following the terrorist attacks of September 11,
2001.
After 9/11, Americans came together and set aside their differences.
Those terrible events unified this country in a common desire to bring
to justice those responsible and to do whatever was necessary to
prevent future attacks.
We have spent over a decade successfully reducing al Qaida's ranks,
and--until last week--doing so without another major attack on U.S.
soil. Yet there have been countless mistakes and costs incurred in the
pursuit of these goals.
One of these key mistakes is the program that the Central
Intelligence Agency initiated after 9/11 to detain and interrogate
terrorist subjects. The details of how this program came to be and how
it was conducted are outlined in the Senate Intelligence Committee's
6,000-page report on the CIA's detention and interrogation program--
based on a documentary review of over 6 million pages of CIA and other
records and including 35,000 footnotes. In December I voted with a
majority of my colleagues on the committee to report out the study and
to send it to the CIA for its review and comments.
I believe that the CIA's detention and interrogation program was
severely flawed. It was mismanaged. The ``enhanced interrogation
techniques'' were brutal. And perhaps most importantly, the program did
not work. Nonetheless, it was portrayed to the White House, the
Department of Justice, the Congress, and the media as a program that
resulted in unique information that ``saved lives.''
At his confirmation hearing, I urged CIA Director John Brennan to
lead in correcting the false public record about the CIA's program and
in instituting the necessary reforms to restore the CIA's reputation
for integrity and analytical rigor. I firmly believe that the CIA
cannot be its best until its leadership faces the serious and grievous
mistakes of this program.
Some say that by looking backward, we are focusing on ``archaeology''
to the exclusion of our national security interests today. I would
argue that acknowledging the flaws of this program is essential for the
CIA's long-term institutional integrity--as well as for the legitimacy
of ongoing sensitive programs. The findings of this report directly
relate to how other CIA programs are managed today.
The CIA, the White House, and other agencies continue their review of
the committee's report on the CIA's detention and interrogation
program, and the Senate Intelligence Committee expects to see an
official response soon. But this is not a report I can talk much about
or share, since it remains classified.
That is why I am thankful for the release of a report by the
Constitution Project's Task Force on Detainee Treatment. The task force
was led by former Representative Asa Hutchison and former
representative and retired Ambassador James Jones and made up of former
high-ranking officials and experts from across the political spectrum.
This was a 2-year effort, based on an examination of available public
records as well as interviews with over 100 former detainees, military
and intelligence officers, interrogators, and policymakers.
In a news article on the report, Mr. Hutchison--who served in several
roles in the Bush administration, including as undersecretary of the
Department of Homeland Security--said that after researching this issue
for nearly 2 years, ``he had no doubts about what the United States
did.'' He concluded that ``it's incredibly important to have an
accurate account not just of what happened but of how decisions were
made.'' He added, ``The United States has a historic and unique
character, and part of that character is that we do not torture.''
I couldn't agree more with his sentiments. As one of the task force's
contributors, former Ambassador Thomas
[[Page S2895]]
Pickering, states in a Washington Post opinion piece I will ask to have
printed in the Record, ``Admitting our mistakes is the only legitimate
basis on which we can reassure the world that America remains committed
to the rule of law and to upholding human rights and democratic
values.''
I commend the report of the Constitution Project's Task Force to my
colleagues. I also urge the administration to work closely with the
Senate Intelligence Committee as it conducts its review of the
Committee's report.
In marking the 25th anniversary of President Reagan's signing of the
international Convention Against Torture, I remind my colleagues and
this administration that the government has an obligation to the
American people to face its mistakes transparently, help the public
understand the nature of those mistakes, and correct them. Director
Brennan and this administration have an important task ahead in this
regard.
I ask unanimous consent that the article to which I referred be
printed in the Record.
There being no objective the material was printed in the Record, as
follows:
[From the Washington Post, Apr. 16, 2013]
America Must Atone for the Torture It Inflicted
(By Thomas R. Pickering)
Thomas R. Pickering is a member of the Constitution
Project's Task Force on Detainee Treatment. He was
undersecretary of state for political affairs from 1997 to
2001 and served as ambassador and representative to the
United Nations from 1989 to 1992.
It's never easy in this volatile world to advance America's
strategic aims. For more than four decades, in the service of
Democratic and Republican presidents, it was often my job to
persuade foreign governments to adhere to international law
and observe the highest standards of conduct in human
rights--including the strict prohibition of torture. A report
released Tuesday by an independent task force on detainee
treatment (to which I contributed) makes it clear that U.S.
officials could have used the same advice.
Unfortunately, the U.S. government's use of torture against
suspected terrorist, and its failure to fully acknowledge and
condemn it, has made the exercise of diplomacy far more
daunting. By authorizing and permitting torture in response
to a global terrorist threat, U.S. leaders committed a grave
error that has undermined our values, principles and moral
stature; eroded our global influence; and placed our
soldiers, diplomats and intelligence officers in even greater
jeopardy.
It's not just the Bush-Cheney administration that bears
responsibility for diminished U.S. standing, although the
worst abuses undeniably took place in the years immediately
after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The Obama administration
also has failed to be as open and accountable on such
fundamental questions of law, morality and principle as a
great power that widely supports human rights needs to be.
What can be done to mitigate the damage and set this
country on a better course? First and foremost, Americans
need to confront the truth. Let's stop resorting to
euphemisms and call ``enhanced interrogation techniques''--
including but not limited to waterboarding--what they
actually are: torture. Torturing detainees flies in the face
of principles and practices established in the founding of
our republic, and it violates U.S. law and international
treaties to which we are a party. Subjecting detainees to
torture, no matter how despicable their alleged crimes, runs
counter to the values embodied in the U.S. Constitution.
Too much information about the abuse of detainees remains
hidden from the American people. Specifically, the Obama
administration's ongoing concealment of the details about our
use of torture has made it impossible for the United States
to comply with its legal obligations under the U.N.
Convention Against Torture and has contributed to a
disturbing level of public support for torturing suspected
terrorists.
President Obama should direct relevant officials to
declassify as many related documents as possible as quickly
as possible--starting with the more than 6 million pages of
classified documents that were the basis for the Senate
intelligence committee's recent report on the CIA's
interrogation program, and the still-secret report itself--so
that the American people may finally learn what was done in
our name. Admitting our mistakes is the only legitimate basis
on which we can reassure the world that America remains
committed to the rule of law and to upholding human rights
and democratic values.
Second, Congress needs to work with the administration to
close the loopholes that allowed torture to occur under a
pretense of legality. In 2009, Obama signed an executive
order giving interrogators clear instructions about
permissible techniques. But future presidents could reverse
course with the stroke of a pen--and no public notice.
To ensure that cannot happen, the federal Anti-Torture
Statute should be amended to make clear that the deliberate
infliction of severe pain and suffering is torture--
regardless of the duration of the torment being inflicted.
The War Crimes Act should be amended to make clear that
cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees is a
federal crime even when it falls short of torture. Instead of
being told to rely on secret legal memos or doctors'
unethical monitoring of brutal interrogation sessions,
interrogators should be given unambiguous orders that all
detainees are to be treated in strict compliance with Common
Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, which is the basic
provision of international law outlawing torture. And there
should be clear, public rules ensuring prompt access to
detainees by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Third, the United States must not transfer detainees to
torture in other countries. Such transfers, known as
``renditions,'' have occurred under Presidents Bill Clinton,
George W. Bush and Obama--despite the fact that they violate
the Convention Against Torture. In part, this is because of a
policy of reliance on ``diplomatic assurances'' from other
countries that detainees would not be tortured, despite clear
evidence that these assurances were not credible. In part,
this is because the United States has refused to acknowledge
that the prohibition against transfers to torture is legally
binding outside of U.S. territory. Both must change.
Democracy and torture cannot peacefully coexist in the same
body politic. Successful human rights diplomacy and torture
can't either. Our country and its place in the world--as well
as the Americans bravely serving in military, intelligence
and diplomatic posts around the globe--deserve nothing less.
____________________
