[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 19]
[Senate]
[Pages 25436-25437]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       ABUSE OF FOREIGN DETAINEES

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President. The Bush administration has steadfastly 
refused to address the black mark on our Nation caused by its 
interrogation policies and practices and the resulting abuse of 
detainees. Some of us in Congress strongly believe that oversight and 
accountability are paramount to restoring America's reputation as a 
human rights leader. We have been 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, Guantanamo, and 
Afghanistan.
  The administration's effort, led by Vice President Cheney, to block 
any legislation that would regulate the treatment of detainees is 
wrong. Also wrong is the Bush administration's refusal to consider an 
independent commission to investigate the abuses. It would rather rely 
on internal, piecemeal investigations conducted within the Defense 
Department, none of which address the significant role of the Central 
Intelligence Agency in interrogations.
  Given the failure of the Republican-controlled Congress to conduct 
effective oversight, I support the Levin amendment to the Defense 
authorization bill to establish an independent commission on the 
treatment of detainees in U.S. custody. I have spoken many times about 
the need for a comprehensive, independent investigation into the abuse 
of detainees. Such an investigation may not be without painful, but 
accountability is a necessary step if we are to recover from all that 
has transpired during this administration's watch.
  I am not alone in calling for an independent commission. Several 
organizations, including the American Bar Association, Human Rights 
First, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch, have urged the 
creation of an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate the 
prisoner abuses. A letter from eight retired generals and admirals to 
President Bush asked him to appoint a prisoner abuse commission modeled 
on the 9/11 Commission. In that letter, the flag officers stated, 
``internal investigations by their nature suffer from a critical lack 
of independence. Americans have never thought it wise or fair for one 
branch of government to police itself.''
  The 9/11 Commission provides more than a structural model for a new 
commission; it also provides a lesson in how perseverance can overcome 
the Bush administration's inclination to secrecy and to refuse to 
acknowledge the facts. The Bush administration initially opposed the 
formation of the 9/11 Commission, just as it now opposes a prisoner 
abuse commission. The administration used the same argument against 
both commissions. It asserts that its own internal investigations are 
sufficient.
  Ironically, Dr. James Schlesinger, the head of a panel established by 
Secretary Rumsfeld to investigate the prisoner abuses, addressed this 
issue in his testimony to the Senate Government Affairs Committee in 
February 2002, as it debated the need for the 9/11 Commission. He 
argued for the creation of the 9/11 Commission because ``to this point 
many questions have been addressed piecemeal or not at all. The purpose 
of the National Commission would be systematically and comprehensively 
to address such questions and to give a complete accounting of the 
events leading up to 9/11. In my judgment, such a Commission would 
serve a high, indeed indispensable, national purpose.'' This is exactly 
the same reason we need an independent commission to investigate the 
prisoner abuse scandals.
  Ignoring the problem will not make it go away. Delaying the 
accounting will not solve the problems. Each week brings new 
allegations that reveal how much we still do not know. Human rights 
groups and journalists are doing what they can to bring the truth to 
light. It is past time for Congress to hold a thorough, oversight 
investigation. The least Congress should finally do is establish an 
independent commission to investigate these matters. Rather than wait 
to read about the latest discovery of abuse in tomorrow's paper, let us 
at least do that.
  After months of delay from the Republican Senate leadership, the 
Senate finally had an opportunity last month to vote on clear guidance 
for treatment of detainees in U.S. custody. When we did, the Senate 
voted overwhelmingly, 90 to 9, in favor of Senator McCain's amendment 
to the Defense appropriations bill, which I was glad to cosponsor along 
with Senator Durbin and others.
  That same amendment was adopted a second time to the Defense 
Authorization bill and I, again, cosponsored it.
  Our credibility and reputation as a world leader in human rights has 
suffered greatly during the last few years. The scandals have put our 
own troops at risk and undermined their efforts in Afghanistan and 
Iraq.
  Many of us have been working on these issues for years. I first wrote 
to Condoleezza Rice in 2003, after reports of deaths of detainees were 
reported from the Bagram base in Afghanistan in late 2002. Like so much 
we have learned, those first reports came from the press and human 
rights groups, not the Bush administration.
  The Bush administration has threatened to veto any legislation that 
would regulate the treatment of detainees. Vice President Cheney is 
reported to be personally lobbying on this matter.
  A group of 28 senior military officers, including GEN John 
Shalikashvili, recently wrote to Senator McCain in support of his 
amendments addressing detainee treatment. That letter states:

       The abuse of prisoners hurts America's cause in the war on 
     terror, endangers U.S. service members who might be captured 
     by the enemy, and is anathema to the values Americans have 
     held dear for generations. . . . Our service members were 
     denied clear guidance, and left to take the blame when things 
     went wrong. They deserve better than that.

  I hope the President will consider these words before he vetoes a 
bill that contains our amendment.
  Prisoner abuse by U.S. personnel is deeply troubling. It is one 
aspect of a broader problem. While we must ensure that prisoners are 
treated humanely by our own personnel, we must also prohibit the use of 
so-called extraordinary

[[Page 25437]]

renditions to send people to other countries where they will be subject 
to torture.
  The Bush administration says that it does not condone torture, but 
transferring detainees to other countries where they will be tortured 
does not absolve our Government of responsibility. By outsourcing 
torture to these countries, we diminish our own values as a nation and 
lose our credibility as an advocate of human rights around the world.
  We have addressed this issue before. Congress implemented article 3 
of the Convention Against Torture in the Foreign Affairs Reform and 
Restructuring Act of 1998, but this administration has exploited 
loopholes in that law to transfer detainees to countries where they are 
subjected to torture. Attorney General Gonzales recently said that U.S. 
policy is not to send detainees ``to countries where we believe or we 
know that they're going to be tortured,'' but he acknowledged that we 
``can't fully control'' what other nations do, and added that he does 
not know whether countries have always complied with their promises. In 
fact, they have not.
  I introduced legislation in March to close the loophole and to 
prevent extraordinary renditions. Now that Congress is finally willing 
to regulate the treatment of detainees--a power that is expressly 
granted in the Constitution--I hope that the Senate will support my 
legislation to prohibit renditions.

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