[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 66 (Wednesday, May 12, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H2886-H2887]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          AFFIRMING DEMOCRACY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, the debate over the war in Iraq should 
not be derailed by the tragedy overwhelming the Berg family. That would 
be a victory against America that al Qaeda is hoping for. No Republican 
or Democrat should do or say anything except that we are profoundly 
sorry for their loss. The country and Congress must remain focused on 
those responsible for the abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison.
  The administration would have us believe that the abuses were the 
work of a few rogue soldiers, but accounts from some of those directly 
involved tell a different story. Today's Washington Post and other 
media worldwide are reporting on interviews and testimony given by 
soldiers. A private seen in the photos told the news media she was 
``just following orders.'' The general in charge of the prison says she 
was confronted by a superior and told ``my way or the hard way.''
  From the Middle East, a 16-year-old Iraqi alleges he was subjected to 
a mock execution in front of his family.
  Mr. Speaker, I will include for the Record several news accounts.
  The military commanders and civilians at the Pentagon cannot agree on 
who was in charge and what policies were approved. That is what 
happened in a scandal before. History gets rewritten. Memories fade as 
if on cue.
  From the little Congress has been able to learn in the last few days, 
one thing is clear; the story keeps changing. This has the look and the 
feel of a cover-up. The tactic is a well-known one around here: Find 
some scapegoats; send out surrogates to decry every call for a full and 
impartial investigation; act and speak like scandal is no big deal.
  The American people have seen a cover-up in the past by another 
Republican administration, and the American people refuse to accept 
anything less than full disclosure and the truth. It was true for the 
Nixon administration, it will be true for the Bush administration.
  We do not have time to wait for the truth to trickle out, but we 
certainly cannot show the world that the government leaks are how 
America finds the truth. These abuses will not go away, no matter how 
many speeches the majority leader makes trying to divert the attention 
of the American people. These abuses will not go away until we back our 
words with deeds and bring justice to everyone involved. Privates do 
not set policy, they follow orders. This scandal goes deeper and higher 
than the Congress, and the American people have been told so far.
  The Australian newspapers carry the story ``Rumsfeld Approved Harsh 
Interrogation.'' We need to know the truth, and that means we conduct 
the most vigorous and independent investigation ever undertaken. An 
investigation must begin at the top where policies were set and command 
decisions were made. The investigation must be widened to include 
Afghanistan and Guantanamo. People outside the reach of the 
administration should conduct an investigation.
  This scandal has shaken this Nation to its core. It is a scandal 
being televised around the world every hour of every day. Virtually no 
one on the face of the earth has not seen or heard about the 
photographs and the atrocities. Yet some of the administration insist 
things are not so bad. Every time a Republican steps up to the podium 
to undertake damage control, the words echo around the world, and the 
words ring hollow.
  Every attempt to act like this is no big deal undermines leaders in 
both parties who are trying to show the world that America does 
understand the meaning of justice and responsibility. Like it or not, 
and I certainly do not, we have to meet this head on. Words like 
torture, humiliation, and murder do apply. We have no choice but to 
shine the light of free and democratic society into the darkness of the 
scandal, whatever the outcome.
  No one is above the law in America and we must show the world that 
the rule of law prevails in this country. It is not enough for the 
administration to say it will not happen again when the American people 
do not know how it happened in the first time. It is not enough to 
speak an apology on one hand, and then send Republicans to the podium 
to act as if we were somehow permitted an injustice now and then.
  Freedom does not come easy, and freedom does not come with 
exceptions. It is not enough to name a few low-level soldiers and 
pretend we have addressed the issue. Administration surrogates are sent 
to the podium to paint Democrats, the news media, and anyone who dares 
to disagree as unpatriotic. The message around the world is America 
will do what it damn well pleases, anywhere in the world, illegal, 
immoral; sorry, world, we are immune. We cannot and we must not send 
that message.
  The administration cannot spin-doctor its way out of the crisis. The 
world simply will not allow it. We cannot spin the inhumanity displayed 
in 1,000 pictures. No words can mitigate the humiliation. The war in 
Iraq is longer about affirming democracy in a far-off land. Now the war 
in Iraq is about affirming democracy in the United States.

                      [From The Age, May 13, 2004]

               Rumsfeld Approved ``Harsh'' Interrogation

                           (By Julian Borger)

       A list of two types of interrogation techniques: one is 
     basic and for all prisoners; the other is much tougher and 
     requires approval.
       U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approved the use of 
     ``harsh'' interrogation techniques at Guantanamo Bay, 
     including stripping detainees naked, making them hold 
     ``stress'' positions and depriving them of sleep, a Pentagon 
     official has confirmed.
       Stephen Cambone, the under-secretary of defence for 
     intelligence, also said severe interrogation techniques, 
     including the use of dogs to intimidate prisoners, had been 
     approved by military commanders in Iraq.
       But Mr. Cambone, Mr. Rumsfeld's top intelligence official, 
     insisted that all U.S. soldiers in Iraq were under orders to 
     obey the Geneva Convention. He denied that the U.S. military 
     leadership had helped create a climate for prison abuse.

[[Page H2887]]

       Mr. Cambone was speaking at a Senate hearing to investigate 
     the torture scandal at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, and to 
     determine whether the seven low-ranking guards facing courts 
     martial for physical and sexual abuse of prisoners were 
     following orders.
       Revealing the interrogation methods allowed in Iraq, the 
     Senate Armed Services Committee released a single page titled 
     ``Interrogation Rules of Engagement'', listing two categories 
     of measures.
       The first showed basic techniques approved for all 
     detainees, while the second involved tougher measures that 
     required approval by Lieutenant-General Ricardo Sanchez, 
     commander of U.S. forces in Iraq. Among the items on the 
     second list were stress positions for up to 45 minutes, sleep 
     deprivation for up to 72 hours and use of muzzled dogs.
       Mr. Cambone said the Bush Administration's policy has been 
     to apply the Geneva Convention to the interrogation and other 
     treatment of detainees in Iraq, but several senators 
     expressed doubts about whether some of the listed techniques 
     conformed with international limits.
       Major-General Antonio Taguba, who wrote a damning army 
     report on abuse at Abu Ghraib, told the committee he found no 
     evidence ``of a policy or a direct order given to these 
     soldiers to conduct what they did''.
       However, he said the scandal was a result of ``failure of 
     leadership . . . lack of discipline, no training whatsoever 
     and no supervision'', and he criticised a command decision to 
     put the jail under the control of a military intelligence 
     unit.
       Critics have argued that Mr. Rumsfeld's decision to suspend 
     Geneva Convention safeguards for prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, 
     and the transfer to Iraq of interrogation techniques used 
     there, helped create the conditions for the Abu Ghraib 
     scandal, even if no order was issued to use torture.
       ``The despicable actions described in General Taguba's 
     report not only reek of abuse, they reek of an organised 
     effort and methodical preparation for interrogation,'' 
     Democrat Senator Carl Levin said.
       According to Senator Levin, an unpublished annexe to the 
     Taguba report stated that ``sleep management, sensory 
     deprivation, isolation longer than 30 days and dogs'' were 
     described as a ``permissible technique for use in the Iraqi 
     theatre'' on condition that the commanding general gave 
     approval ``prior to employment''.
       Mr. Cambone said the techniques had been approved by U.S. 
     commanders in Iraq, not by the Pentagon.
       However, he confirmed that Mr. Rumsfeld had last year 
     approved a new set of techniques, but insisted on being asked 
     for permission each time this ``stress matrix'' was used.
       General Taguba stood by his inquiry's finding that military 
     police jailers should not have been involved in conditioning 
     Iraqi detainees for interrogation, even as Mr. Cambone 
     disputed that conclusion.
       Mr. Cambone said that the military policy and military 
     intelligence needed to work closely to gain as much 
     intelligence as possible from the prisoners.
       Mr. Cambone also said that General Taguba misinterpreted 
     the November order, which he said only put the intelligence 
     unit in charge of the prison facility, not of the military 
     guards.
       While General Taguba depicted the abuses at the prison as 
     the acts of a few soldiers under a fragmented and inept 
     command, he also said that ``they were probably influenced by 
     others, if not necessarily directed specifically by others''.
       His report called for an inquiry into the culpability of 
     intelligence officers, which is still under way.
       The unusual public sparring between a two-star army general 
     and one of Mr. Rumsfeld's most trusted aides cast a spotlight 
     on the confusing conditions at the prison last year when the 
     worst abuses occurred, as well as the sensitive issue of 
     whether the Pentagon's thirst for better intelligence to 
     combat Iraqi insurgents contributed to the climate there.
                                  ____


            I Was Forced to Abuse Inmates, Says U.S. Soldier

       An American soldier photographed mocking naked Iraqi 
     prisoners has claimed she was told to pose for the pictures 
     by senior officers.
       Pte Lynndie England, 21, faces a court martial over the 
     pictures of abuse in the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad which 
     included her holding a dog lead tied to the neck of a naked 
     Iraqi inmate.
       She was also shown laughing with a cigarette in her mouth 
     while pointing at the genitals of naked prisoners.
       However, Pte England claimed in an interview with the 
     American television network CBS, the first broadcaster to 
     show the abuse pictures, that she was forced to take part in 
     the humiliation of prisoners.
       ``I was instructed by persons in higher rank to stand 
     there, hold this leash,'' she said. ``And they took a picture 
     and that's all I know.''
       She also admitted that prisoners had suffered worse abuse, 
     but refused to elaborate on the advice of her lawyer.
       Pte England, who is being held in custody at Fort Bragg, 
     North Carolina, said she had been told that the abuse was 
     helping to stop attacks on American soldiers by Iraqi 
     insurgents.
       Pte England's lawyer, Giorigo Ra'Shadd, claimed that some 
     of the abuse at the prison was orchestrated by CIA agents. 
     ``The spooks took over the jail,'' he said. ``Everything 
     about that command was wacky.''
       Military officials have admitted that intelligence agents 
     did interview inmates at the prison, and a military 
     intelligence officer was put in charge of Abu Ghraib last 
     November.
       However, Maj Gen Antonio Taguba, whose report into the 
     abuse was leaked last week, told the U.S. Senate yesterday 
     that he had found no evidence of senior officers or 
     intelligence officers ordering the abuse.
       Pte England, who is four months pregnant, has been charged 
     with maltreating prisoners together with six other soldiers 
     from the 372nd Military Police Company. She faces up to 15 
     years in prison if found guilty.
       No date has been set for her hearing, but Specialist Jeremy 
     Sivits, 24, will face a court martial in Baghdad next week.

                          ____________________