[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 118 (Thursday, July 17, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1492]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          INTELLIGENCE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2009

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                               speech of

                            HON. MARK UDALL

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 16, 2008

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration of the bill (H.R. 5959) to 
     authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2009 for 
     intelligence and intelligence-related activities of the 
     United States Government, the Community Management Account, 
     and the Central Intelligence Agency Retirement and Disability 
     System, and for other purposes:

  Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. Chairman, I support this bipartisan bill, 
which is designed to strengthen and improve America's intelligence 
capabilities.
  The bill strengthens intelligence by adding funding to enhance human 
intelligence collection, strengthening research and development in 
advanced technologies, and improving signals intelligence. Importantly, 
the bill also includes strong provisions to promote accountability, 
including prohibiting the use of CIA contractors to interrogate 
detainees, requiring a report on compliance with the Detainee Treatment 
Act of 2005, and creating a statutory, Senate-confirmed Inspector 
General for the entire Intelligence community.
  I am disappointed in what the bill doesn't include--a provision 
included in last year's authorization bill that would have prohibited 
interrogation techniques not authorized by the Army Field Manual on 
Interrogation.
  Despite White House claims that the United States does not torture 
prisoners, we continue to learn about Administration actions that seem 
to condone the use of coercive techniques in questioning prisoners.
  Last year, we learned about a classified Justice Department memo from 
February 2005 allowing waterboarding and other coercive techniques. 
Then there was the Executive Order signed last year that effectively 
opened a loophole for the CIA to practice interrogation techniques that 
go beyond those allowed by the U.S. military.
  Reports of destroyed interrogation tapes showing CIA operatives using 
waterboarding and other ``enhanced'' techniques are deeply disturbing, 
and suggest a double standard, whereby these techniques are approved 
for use by the CIA but not by the Department of Defense and its 
intelligence agencies. All this points to the need for a common 
standard for humane and effective interrogation techniques across the 
government, which is what the provision called for in last year's bill.
  Sen. John McCain has called the Army Field Manual techniques ``humane 
and yet effective.'' In my view, there is no reason why interrogation 
techniques that work effectively and humanely for our military 
interrogators cannot also work effectively and humanely for CIA and 
other intelligence agency interrogators.
  Mr. Chairman, I urge passage of this legislation, though I hope that 
the provision prohibiting interrogation techniques not authorized by 
the Army Field Manual on Interrogation is included in the conference 
report. I believe it sends a message that the United States believes no 
part of its government is above the law, and that no interrogation 
method is acceptable that could not also be used on Americans in enemy 
custody.

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