[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 175 (Tuesday, November 13, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S14246]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                TORTURE

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I shall not take all that time, but I 
wanted to talk about a couple of things this morning. Before I do that, 
I want to express my appreciation for the comments of my colleague from 
Massachusetts, Senator Kennedy, about what our priorities seem to be 
and what they should be with respect to fiscal policy and 
appropriations bills as well as the larger priorities of our country.
  Let me now talk briefly about the vote that occurred last week on the 
confirmation of Attorney General Mukasey. I wish to talk about it 
because I think a very important issue that needs to be discussed--and 
we have not really discussed it much on the floor of the Senate--is the 
issue of torture.
  I don't think the issue of torture, for this country, is negotiable. 
And, I don't think it is a very difficult question.
  But, before I talk about the issue of torture specifically, let me 
just describe what I think represents the great strength of this 
country, and the great strength of this country does not include a 
willingness or an allowance to torture anybody anywhere.
  We were engaged in a long, difficult Cold War for decades. That 
struggle against the Soviet Union and totalitarianism lasted a long 
time. But it wasn't, in the end, bombs and bullets that won that war; 
it was American values that won that war. It was the idea of our 
country, and the idea of our country is rooted in the Constitution. 
People are free. They believe what they want. They are able to say what 
they want. The Government has to respect the rights of everyone.
  That is the embroidery and the framework of our Government and our 
Constitution. America is an idea, with a written Constitution and a 
Bill of Rights, that protects people, and stands for liberty, human 
rights, and human dignity.
  In fact, those values of this country were so strong that even during 
the Cold War those values shined a light of hope into the darkest cells 
in the Soviet Union, in the gulag prisons, in the outermost reaches of 
Siberia. We know that because people who were in those dark cells came 
out from behind the Iron Curtain and told us of the ray of hope they 
saw from this country.
  Millions of political prisoners were held, often in solitary 
confinement in the Soviet Union, simply for thinking and speaking 
freely. Many were there for years, swept off the streets in the Soviet 
Union, never to be heard from again.
  Often, they weren't charged. When they were, they were convicted 
after show trials because they had no rights.
  But some survived, and they talked about how important the idea and 
the values were that embodied this country called the United States. 
America gave them hope. The idea of America reached to the farthest and 
darkest places on this planet. It always has, and it has offered hope.
  Now, it is true that this country is not perfect. We all understand 
that. But it is also true that what we stand for is very important in 
terms of the message we send around the world. It is important for our 
self-respect, and it is important for what we believe America to be.
  It is troubling to me that polls that are done around the world show 
that so many in the world now are very concerned about our country, 
with views that are very negative about the United States, and these 
views are held by historic foes but also historic friends. That is 
something which should concern all of us. We have to hold ourselves to 
a higher standard. We always have, and we should hold ourselves to a 
higher standard.
  The issue of torture was an issue that arose because of the questions 
asked a candidate, a nominee, for Attorney General. There are some who 
believe under certain circumstances, apparently, torture is all right 
or appropriate or sanctioned. I am not one of them, and I would think 
most Americans would not believe that.
  George Washington led the Continental Army in the War for 
Independence. After a large number of his troops were captured, he and 
his troops saw Hessian mercenaries, fighting for the British, slaughter 
unarmed prisoners from the Continental Army. They saw that, and yet 
George Washington refused to treat Hessian prisoners the same way. He 
insisted we were different and we would treat people the way we should 
be treated.
  That is America's birthright. It has always been the case. And that 
is why the discussion about torture is so very important. It is why the 
discussions about treatment of detainees, about enemy combatants, about 
habeas corpus, and about the power of the executive branch in this 
country are important as well.
  The Attorney General's post is very important. I met with the nominee 
and I liked him. I talked to him about his commendable experience in 
Government as a Federal Judge. But his inability to answer the basic 
questions about waterboarding and torture were very troubling to me. I 
don't understand that inability, and I don't think, from my standpoint, 
that issue is negotiable. Torture is not what America is about.
  Some say or some imply that being against torture is somehow being 
soft on terrorists. That is as despicable as it is wrong. Being against 
torture is being for an America that is better than its enemies. Being 
against torture is being for an America that continues to be a beacon 
of hope around the world for doing the right thing, and it is being for 
an America that stands for the rule of law and human dignity and human 
rights.
  So I wanted to make the point, after the debate we had last week, 
that this is not an irrelevant issue. It is an issue that defines our 
country. It is an issue about who we are, the value system of this 
great country of ours.

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