[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 14]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 19352]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         THE PRISE ACT OF 2005

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JOHN CONYERS, JR.

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 28, 2005

  Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, today, I reintroduce the Promoting 
Responsible Interrogation Standards Enforcement Act. I am disappointed 
that it is necessary to do so, but over a year after the first pictures 
of abuse Abu Ghraib were leaked, there has still been no command 
responsibility for those who condoned the atrocious behavior. And 
recent news reports tell us that even more pictures of even worse 
treatment will soon be released.
  Over the past year, we have come to learn that the abuse of detainees 
in American custody is not the work of a few bad apples in a single 
Iraqi prison, but a common occurrence throughout our military 
controlled detention centers. From Afghanistan to Guantanamo, at our 
hands or at the hands of well-known sponsors of torture, we have 
abused, tortured, and even killed those who we have captured or 
detained in the war on terror.
  We clearly cannot leave the Administration to its own devices to 
prevent this abuse from happening again. After ten so-called 
``investigations,'' we are no closer to discovering just how high in 
the Administration the approval of torture tactics went. Every day we 
learn of more abuse, each allegation more horrific than the next. How 
much longer can we pretend it was all an accident?
  That's why I am introducing this bill to clarify that torture at the 
hands of our personnel, or upon their request, is not allowed under any 
circumstance. It also clarifies that our responsibilities in the U.N. 
Convention Against Torture, unlike what the Attorney General is 
claiming, apply to everyone in our custody, regardless of where they 
are kept or which country they come from.
  Intelligence obtained through torture is notoriously unreliable, and 
is therefore bad policy in the first place. But perhaps most 
importantly, our use of torture only encourages other nations to 
torture our own captured personnel. We cannot continue to put our own 
fighting men and women in danger.
  I ask my colleagues to join me in support of both this bill, and H.R. 
952, Congressman Markey's bill banning the outsourcing torture. 
Together, they will clarify that this Congress will no longer tolerate 
the inhumane treatment of those we capture or detain, and will 
hopefully start our country down the road to repairing its now 
tarnished reputation as the world's most preeminent human rights 
leader.

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