[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 134 (Friday, November 19, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11622-S11624]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ACCOUNTABILITY FOR THE ABUSE OF FOREIGN DETAINEES
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, nearly 7 months after the world learned of
the atrocities at Abu Ghraib, those of us in the Congress who strongly
believe that oversight and accountability are paramount to restoring
America's reputation as a human rights leader remain stymied in our
efforts to learn the truth about how this administration's policies
trickled down from offices in Washington to cellblocks in Abu Ghraib.
The Bush administration circled the wagons long ago and has
continually maintained that the abuses were the work of ``a few bad
apples.'' I have long said that somewhere in the upper reaches of the
Executive branch a process was set in motion that rolled forward until
it produced this scandal. To put this matter behind us, first we need
to understand what happened at all levels of government. It is the
responsibility of the Senate to investigate the facts, from genesis to
approval to implementation and abuse. However, this Senate, and in
particular the Judiciary Committee, continues to fall short in its
oversight responsibilities.
Several of the investigations into U.S. detention policies are now
complete. They provide additional insight into how the prison abuses
occurred, but their narrow mandates prevented them from addressing
critical issues. Overall, these investigations collectively suffered
from a lack of scope and authority, leaving key inquiries into issues
like contractor abuses and ``ghost detainees'' unexplored.
Ultimately, what emerges from the reports is a striking
contradiction. The reports state that there was no official policy of
abuse and they do not recommend punishment for high-ranking officials.
And yet, the reports show that decisions made by top officials,
including the President himself, led to the abuses that occurred in the
fields of battle.
Recently, a Federal judge, recognizing the importance of government
accountability, ordered the Bush administration to comply with a
Freedom of Information Act--FOIA--request and release all documents
related to the detentions at Abu Ghraib prison. Many of the documents
released by the Administration are heavily redacted, yet reveal enough
information to raise serious concerns.
One of the released documents, an FBI report dated May 19, 2004,
illustrates a troubling pattern in this scandal. The redacted version
of this document states that FBI employees at Abu Ghraib reported
witnessing incidents such as ``military personnel retraining a detainee
who was `spread eagle' on a mattress on the floor yelling and flailing
. . . a detainee, either naked or wearing boxer shorts, lying prone on
the wet floor . . . [and] detainees who were ordered to strip and then
placed in isolation with no clothes.'' These practices potentially
violate the Geneva Conventions and clearly violate the FBI's own
interrogation rules, yet the agents did not believe they ``rose to the
level of misconduct or mistreatment.''
[[Page S11623]]
On May 20, 2004, I asked Director Mueller at a Judiciary Committee
hearing whether any of his agents had encountered objectionable
practices involving the treatment of prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan or
Guantanamo Bay. He limited his answer to Abu Ghraib, stating that none
of his agents had witnessed abuses in that facility. I wrote to
Director Mueller on October 29, 2004, asking him to clarify the
discrepancy between his congressional testimony and the information
contained in the FBI memo. I also requested unredacted versions of all
of the FBI documents released in response to the FOIA request. I have
not received a response.
I remain concerned about reports of prisoner abuses that have
occurred since the Abu Ghraib scandal was publicly disclosed. Attorneys
working on behalf of a group of abused prisoners sent letters to
members of the Senate Armed Services Committee on September 8, 2004,
and to Vice Admiral Albert Church on October 13, 2004, notifying them
that torture may have continued after the Abu Ghraib abuses were
uncovered. I sent a letter to Secretary Rumsfeld on October 29, 2004,
asking him for assurances that the abuse of detainees has not continued
and that all interrogation techniques now being used in U.S. detention
facilities comply with international treaty obligations and U.S. laws.
Again, I have not received a response. I hope that we do not learn of
continuing abuses, yet given all that we have seen and all that we have
yet to learn, I am still not confident that the problems have been
solved. I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record these
three letters.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
(See Exhibit 1.)
Mr. LEAHY. Allowing senior officials to avoid accountability sets a
dangerous precedent. It is time for Congress, even this Republican led
Congress, to do its job and take action. We must send a message that no
one in the chain of command--from an enlisted private stationed in Iraq
to the commander-in-chief--is above the laws of our Nation.
Soon, the Senate will consider the nomination of Alberto Gonzales for
the position of Attorney General. The Judiciary Committee, which has
jurisdiction over the Department of Justice, will consider this
nomination first. As I have said many times, and as I deeply regret,
the Committee has all but abdicated its oversight role with regard to
the issue of foreign detainee abuse. Last June, on a party-line vote,
Republicans defeated an effort to obtain documents regarding the
development of interrogation policies that we believed to be in the
possession of the Department of Justice.
Some of us had also asked Judge Gonzales, in his role as White House
counsel, to release documents that we believed relevant to our
investigations. It is true that the White House and Department of
Justice released a small number of documents last summer, but that
self-serving subset of the memoranda offered a mere glimpse into the
genesis of the scandal. All of those documents should have been
provided earlier to Congress, and still much more remains hidden away
from public view.
Judge Gonzales's role in formulating the administration's policies on
the detention and treatment of prisoners in U.S. custody overseas is an
issue of significant concern. His January 25, 2002, memo to the
President argues for a radical shift in our longstanding policy to
apply the Geneva Conventions to foreign prisoners. He later defended
this memo, stating that it only applied to al Qaeda and Taliban. As he
stated in a June 22, 2004, news conference, ``in Iraq, it has always
been U.S. position that Geneva applies . . . [B]oth the White House and
Department of Defense have been very public and clear about that.''
Unfortunately, we have to ask Judge Gonzales if the Geneva
Conventions are actually being applied in Iraq. An October 24, 2004,
story in The Washington Post reveals yet another Justice Department
memo that relied upon questionable legal reasoning in order to
authorize actions that potentially violated the Geneva Conventions. The
draft memo, dated March 19, 2004, was written at the request of Judge
Gonzales, apparently in order to authorize the CIA to transfer
detainees out of Iraq for interrogation--a practice expressly
prohibited by the Geneva Conventions. I look forward to discussing
these memoranda, as well as other policy decisions, in more detail with
Judge Gonzales as we consider his nomination.
With the consideration of this nomination, the Judiciary Committee
has the opportunity to redeem itself. In my conversations with Judge
Gonzales earlier this week, I have expressed to him the need for our
questions to be answered. I believe that other members of the
committee, on both sides of the aisle, are troubled by certain
Administration policies and are disturbed by the evidence of prisoner
abuse. I hope that the Committee will fulfill its oversight
responsibility now.
U.S. Senate,
Washington, DC, October 29, 2004.
Hon. Donald Rumsfeld,
Secretary of Defense,
Washington, DC.
Dear Secretary Rumsfeld: As you know, I have closely
monitored the numerous ongoing and completed prisoner abuse
investigations instigated by the Pentagon, but remain
skeptical that these investigations will uncover the full
truth. Each of these probes is limited in scope or authority
and, therefore, none will comprehensively investigate the
abuse of detainees.
I am particularly concerned about the status of the ongoing
Pentagon investigations. In a Defense Department press
briefing on August 25, 2004, General Paul J. Kern said the
release of Admiral Albert T. Church's report was expected by
September 20, and would ``fill the gaps and seams.'' That
same day, in a separate Pentagon briefing, a senior Army
official said the Church report should be complete by mid-
September and the Formica report ``should be out soon.'' As
of October 29, 2004, neither investigation has been released.
In addition, Lt. Gen. David W. Barno stated in a Pentagon
briefing on October 19, 2004, that the report by Brigadier
General Charles Jacoby is complete, but it has not been
released.
The delay in the completion and public release of these
investigations raises two significant concerns. The first is
whether the investigations were extended due to the discovery
of abuses that previous investigations failed to uncover, or
the discovery of abuses that may have occurred since this
scandal was revealed in April. I recently received a copy of
a letter submitted to Vice Admiral Church suggesting that
abuses by soldiers and/or contractors continued even after
the abuses at Abu Ghraib were reported by the press in late
April. That letter is attached. My second concern is whether
the release of the reports is being delayed for political
reasons. I would like to believe this is unlikely, but
previous experience suggests otherwise. The Schlesinger and
Fay-Jones reports were released in the middle of a month-long
congressional recess, the Army Inspector General's report
received little attention because it was released on the same
day as the 9-11 Commission Report. Without any additional
information, I am forced to wonder whether the remaining
reports are being withheld until a politically expedient
time.
In order to better understand the current status of the
ongoing Pentagon investigations, I ask that you provide the
requested information and respond to the following questions
by November 15, 2004. I have not received a response to the
letter I sent you on October 1, 2004. 1 remain concerned
about the issues raised in that letter, which still awaits
your reply.
1. Please provide the current status and expected
completion and release dates for all ongoing investigations
into the abuse of detainees.
2. Please explain why the investigations conducted by Vice
Admiral Church, Brigadier General Jacoby, and Brigadier
General Formica are delayed beyond their expected completion
and release dates.
3. Has any ongoing investigation discovered incidents of
abuse that were not previously reported by the completed
investigations?
4. Has any ongoing or completed investigation discovered
incidents of abuse that have occurred since the Abu Ghraib
prison abuse scandal was reported by the press on April 28,
2004?
5. Can you assure me that all interrogation techniques now
being used in U.S. detention facilities comply with
international treaty obligations and U.S. laws?
As stated above, I request that you answer these questions
by November 15, 2004. Thank you for your prompt attention to
this matter.
Sincerely,
Patrick Leahy,
U.S. Senator.
____
September 8, 2004.
Senator John Warner,
Chair, U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, Russell Senate
Office Building, Washington, DC.
Senator Carl Levin,
Ranking Member, U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, Russell
Senate Office Building, Washington, DC.
Dear Senators Warner, Levin, and Members of the Committee:
On behalf of the hundreds of thousands of people in Iraq,
thank you very much for holding these hearings on the torture
and abuse of prisoners in Iraq. It is a great public service.
[[Page S11624]]
We represent the class of persons tortured in Iraq in a
civil lawsuit brought against the two government contractors
who participated in the torture, CACI International, Inc. and
Titan Corporation.
We have learned from direct interviews conducted in Iraq in
August 2004 that the torture CONTINUES despite the publicity
surrounding the revelations of the Abu Ghraib torture. We are
enclosing for your information a detailed summary of facts
relating to the recent torture. As you will see from
reviewing the summary, it is clear that torture HAS and IS
transpiring at multiple, previously undisclosed, locations in
addition to Abu Ghraib.
We respectfully request that you place this letter and
attachment into the hearing record.
We also respectfully request that the investigation into
the detainee abuses continue and be expanded to include
locations other than Abu Ghraib. We ask that you hold
additional hearings and permit us or our clients, the
victims, to testify about what has and is transpiring. We
suggest that those hearings include questioning of
representatives from CACI International, Inc. and Titan
Corporation, the two corporations shown by the military's
investigation to be complicit in the torture.
Please do not hesitate to contact either of us if you have
any questions about the incidents described in the
attachment.
Susan L. Burke,
Montgomery, McCracken, Walker & Rhoads, LLC.
Shereef H. Akeel,
Melamed, Dailey & Akeel, P.C.
____
Montgomery, McCracken,
Walker & Rhoads, LLP,
Philadelphia, PA, October 13, 2004.
Re Incidents of Torture and Abuse.
Vice Admiral Albert T. Church, III,
Naval Inspector General, Office of the Naval Inspector
General, Washington DC.
Dear Admiral Church: We are part of the legal team
prosecuting a class action seeking to hold government
contractors CACI and Titan Corporation accountable for their
role in the Iraqi prison scandal. As part of that effort, we
have been interviewing detainees who have been tortured or
abused. We have learned of many instances of torture by
Americans (both military and civilian) that do not appear to
be the subject of any ongoing military investigation.
We are attaching for your information a report that
summarizes eleven such incidents. We would very much
appreciate learning when investigations have been commenced
with respect to the incidents described in the attached
report. We also have additional incidents to report to
whomever you designate as the appropriate person to receive
the information.
Based on the information we have learned, it is clear that
Abu Ghraib prison was not the only prison where detainees
have been and are being tortured. It is also clear that the
publicity surrounding the Abu Ghraub photographs did not
prevent torture from continuing to occur.
As I trust you know and as explained in the enclosed
affidavits signed by two experienced military interrogators,
using torture during interrogation harms not only the victims
but also places American troops in grave danger. We are very
concerned that not enough action has been taken to halt past
practices. Given that the conduct at issue clearly violates
the Geneva Conventions and United States law, we find the
insufficient oversight troubling.
We look forward to hearing from you or your staff.
Sincerely,
Susan L. Burke.
____________________