[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 130 (Friday, August 1, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8044-S8045]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mrs. FEINSTEIN (for herself, Mr. Rockefeller, Mr. Whitehouse, 
        Mr. Hagel, Mr. Feingold, and Mr. Wyden):
  S. 3437. A bill to limit the use of certain interrogation techniques, 
to require notification of the International Committee of the Red Cross 
of detainees, to prohibit interrogation by contractors, and for other 
purposes; to the Select Committee on Intelligence.
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, today, Senators Rockefeller, 
Whitehouse, Hagel, Feingold and I introduce legislation to end coercive 
interrogations and secret detentions by the Central Intelligence 
Agency.
  These practices have brought shame to our Nation, have harmed our 
ability to fight the war on terror, and, I believe, violate U.S. law 
and international treaty obligations.
  It is time to repudiate torture and secret disappearances. It is time 
to end the outsourcing of coercive interrogations to the lowest bidder. 
It is time to return to the norms and values that have driven the 
United States to greatness for decades, but have been tarnished in the 
past 7 years.
  It is now public knowledge that the Bush administration, in the Vice 
President's words, turned to ``the dark side.'' The ``gloves came 
off.'' In the name of counterterrorism, the CIA resorted to 
waterboarding--an interrogation technique invented in the Spanish 
Inquisition to force false confessions and punish enemies.
  In a mistaken effort to gain better intelligence, the CIA used this 
same technique that the Justice Department has prosecuted and the State 
Department has decried overseas. The administration used warped logic 
and faulty reasoning to say waterboarding technique was not torture. It 
is.
  Waterboarding is the only technique to be publicly confirmed by this 
administration. There are others that have not been acknowledged but 
are still authorized for use. This has to end.
  But we will never turn this sad page in our Nation's history until 
all coercive techniques are banned, and are replaced with a single, 
clear, uniform standard across the United States Government.
  That standard is the one set out in the Army Field Manual. Its 
techniques work for the military and for the Federal Bureau of 
Investigation. If the CIA would abide by its terms, it would work for 
the CIA as well.
  The first provision in this legislation requires the Intelligence 
Community to follow the Army Field Manual. That is already the law for 
the Department of Defense.
  It is supported by 43 retired generals and admirals and by a 
bipartisan group of former Secretaries of State and Defense, 
Ambassadors, and national security advisors.

[[Page S8045]]

  Majorities in both houses of Congress passed this provision earlier 
this year, sending a clear message that we do not support coercive 
interrogations. Regrettably, the President's veto stopped it from 
becoming law.
  The second provision in this legislation requires that access to any 
detainee being held by the intelligence community be provided to 
members of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
  Access by the ICRC is a hallmark of international law and is required 
by the Geneva Conventions. We believe that granting access to the ICRC 
is the best way to ensure that the same right will be afforded to U.S. 
forces if they are ever captured overseas.
  But ICRC access has been denied at CIA black sites in the war on 
terror. This has, in part, opened the door to the abuses in detainee 
treatment. Independent access prevents abuses like we witnessed at Abu 
Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. It is time that the same protection is in 
place for the CIA as well, in the well-established rules that the 
military has used for years.
  Finally, this legislation contains a ban on contractor interrogators 
at the CIA. As General Hayden has testified, the CIA uses outside 
contractors to conduct these interrogations.
  We should not be using coercive interrogation techniques at all. But 
I firmly believe that outsourcing these interrogations to private 
companies is a way to diminish accountability and to avoid getting the 
Agency's hands dirty. I also believe that the use of contractors leads 
to more brutal interrogations than if they were done by Government 
employees.
  We remain a nation at war, and credible, actionable intelligence 
remains a cornerstone of our war effort. But that is not what the CIA 
detention and interrogation program has provided.
  Every single experienced interrogator tells us that coercive 
techniques will get someone to say what the interrogator wants to hear. 
But that doesn't make it true.
  In fact, coercive interrogations and the threat of torture produced 
the information that Saddam Hussein was providing al Qaeda with WMD 
training. That wasn't true, but it helped lead us to war in Iraq.
  Military and FBI interrogators also tell us that when they build a 
rapport with a detainee, they get more information, and more valuable 
information, than when it is coerced.
  Beyond that, our Nation has paid an enormous price because of these 
interrogations. They cast shadow and doubt over our ideals and our 
system of justice. Our enemies have used our practices to recruit more 
extremists. Our key global partnerships, crucial to winning the war on 
terror, have been strained.
  Look at two of our closest allies in the world. The British 
Parliament no longer trusts U.S. assurances that we will not torture 
detainees. The Canadian Government recently added the United States to 
its list of nations that conduct torture.
  This is not the country that we want to be. Torture and 
disappearances do not befit the nation that I know.
  It is time to restore America's integrity.
  It will take time to resume our place as the world's beacon of 
liberty and justice. This bill will put us on that path and start the 
process. I urge its passage.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be 
printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be 
printed in the Record, as follows:

                                S. 3437

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Restoring America's 
     Integrity Act''.

     SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.

       In this Act:
       (1) Instrumentality.--The term ``instrumentality'', with 
     respect to an element of the intelligence community, means a 
     contractor or subcontractor at any tier of the element of the 
     intelligence community.
       (2) Intelligence community.--The term ``intelligence 
     community'' has the meaning given that term in section 3(4) 
     of the National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 401a(4)).

     SEC. 3. LIMITATION ON INTERROGATION TECHNIQUES.

       No individual in the custody or under the effective control 
     of personnel of an element of the intelligence community or 
     instrumentality of an element of the intelligence community, 
     regardless of nationality or physical location of such 
     individual or personnel, shall be subject to any treatment or 
     technique of interrogation not authorized by the United 
     States Army Field Manual on Human Intelligence Collector 
     Operations.

     SEC. 4. NOTIFICATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE 
                   RED CROSS.

       (a) Requirement.--The head of an element of the 
     intelligence community or an instrumentality of such element 
     who detains or has custody or effective control of an 
     individual shall notify the International Committee of the 
     Red Cross of the detention of the individual and provide 
     access to such individual in a manner consistent with the 
     practices of the Armed Forces.
       (b) Construction.--Nothing in this section shall be 
     construed--
       (1) to create or otherwise imply the authority to detain; 
     or
       (2) to limit or otherwise affect any other rights or 
     obligations which may arise under the Geneva Conventions, 
     other international agreements, or other laws, or to state 
     all of the situations under which notification to and access 
     for the International Committee of the Red Cross is required 
     or allowed.

     SEC. 5. PROHIBITION ON INTERROGATIONS BY CONTRACTORS.

       The Director of the Central Intelligence Agency may not 
     permit a contractor or subcontractor to the Central 
     Intelligence Agency to carry out an interrogation of an 
     individual. Any interrogation carried out on behalf of the 
     Central Intelligence Agency shall be conducted by an employee 
     of such Agency.
                                 ______