[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Pages 12906-12908]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                THE TREATMENT OF PRISONERS AT GUANTANAMO

  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I heard a good deal of the remarks of 
the distinguished Senator from Arizona, Mr. Kyl, as he discussed the 
issues surrounding the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo and the 
actions of our military. I could not agree with him more. He is one of 
the Senate's finest lawyers. He is on the Judiciary Committee, where we 
just had hearings, and has been involved in these issues for some time. 
In fact, I serve with him on the Judiciary Committee and am also a 
Member of the Armed Services Committee.
  I would have to say to this body that our Congress has had a total of 
29-plus hearings involving the handling of prisoners since the war on 
terrorism began. I think I have been at most of them. Most of them have 
been before the Armed Services Committee and Judiciary Committee. We 
have had a host of these hearings. We have had witnesses and 
complainants and issues brought up to us time and time again.
  Yesterday, at our hearing in Judiciary, I really reached a point 
where I just felt I had to speak out. It was in the morning before 
Senator Durbin made his remarks. But it was something I felt deeply, 
and it became more and more clear to me: that is, we in this Senate are 
creating an impression around the world that wholesale violations of 
human rights are occurring in our prisons, and this is absolutely not 
true.
  Members of our own Congress have suggested and even stated that it is 
the policy of our country to abuse and violate prisoners' rights. This 
is completely misstating the true facts that are occurring. Anyone who 
visits the Guantanamo prison--and I believe that some 60-odd 
Congressmen and Senators have been there, including my own visit to the 
temporary facility several years ago--would find a new $150-million 
prison right on the top of the island overlooking the water. It is a 
beautiful site where they built this prison. It is a shame really that 
a prison was built there, but it is part of the military base where it 
is located. These prisoners are being given tremendous medical care. 
They are being treated for their diseases, for the parasites with which 
many of them have become infested. They have been cared for 
effectively. They have gained weight. They are provided food at a 
financial cost substantially exceeding that of other prisoners in 
America and soldiers in the U.S. military. We have treated the Koran 
with respect and the highest esteem and tried to handle these prisoners 
in a way that is appropriate.
  I will say a couple of things. It is important we treat these 
prisoners humanely, because we have high ideals as Americans. There are 
thousands of

[[Page 12907]]

prisoners and we have thousands of soldiers involved in this area. That 
someone would overstep their bounds is not something we would not 
expect. It happens in American prisons every day. Prison guards are 
fined, they are removed, they are fired, they are prosecuted for abuse. 
We do not like to admit that, but it happens. We take care of it in 
America. We do not allow this to continue.
  The facts are these detainees at Guantanamo are detainees who are 
being held consistent with the general principles of the Geneva 
Conventions but are not covered by that convention. As Senator Kyl 
noted, they are not lawful combatants, they are unlawful combatants. 
They are people who sneak into a country. They do not wear a uniform. 
They are not part of any state army. Their goal is to kill innocent 
civilians, men and women and children not involved in a war effort at 
all. The purpose of the Geneva Conventions is to help one army identify 
the members of the other army and to encourage those armies not to 
endanger civilians, but to focus their attention on their enemy and to 
deal with them. These prisoners are entirely different. They do not 
qualify for those conventions. But we provide them great protections, 
anyway.
  We have spent $109 million on the prison there at Guantanamo. We are 
going to spend another $50 million making it even better. I don't see 
that there is any basis to move those prisoners, to alter what we are 
doing there and to create a new prison. How would that make us any 
safer if that were to occur?
  Let me share this about the 500 or so prisoners who are there. In the 
course of this war on terrorism, our country has apprehended 10,000 
detainees, individuals who have been captured. Each one has been 
screened carefully. As a result, some 750 have been identified for 
incarceration at Guantanamo, the worst of the worst. Since that time, 
we have continued to monitor them. Each one of them has had a full 
review. As that has occurred, another 200 have been released and we are 
down now to a little more than 500 at Guantanamo. I note of the 200 
released, some 12 have already been rearrested as they go about their 
efforts to kill Americans and American soldiers. They have been 
rearrested, because they returned to battle. This clearly suggest that 
of those other 500 detainees remaining, many of those are dedicated 
totally to killing American citizens. They believe in what they are 
doing. They are sold on this effort. They are implacable in their goal 
and intentions and should not be confused with the normal prisoners of 
war where you have a soldier who was drafted into an army and they go 
out and get captured and they dutifully stay in their prison until the 
war is over.
  What do you do with prisoners of war or these kind of prisoners? 
Prisoners of war are held until the war is over. You do not turn them 
loose so they can then re-engage in killing your soldiers. That is the 
crisis.
  When will the war end? I am not sure. So we have people say, they 
have to all be released. You cannot hold them because this war might go 
on forever.
  Might, might, might. We are talking about now. It has not been going 
on that long. Most have only been held 1, 2, 3 years. This is not the 
time to be wholesale releasing these people. This battle is tough and 
hot right now. If you do not believe it, look at what is happening in 
Iraq and how many are killed by these attacks, surreptitious sneak 
attacks by roadside bombs in that country. This war is not over. It is 
ongoing.
  We are lucky and have been fortunate that because we were aggressive, 
we as a nation have not had another attack on our homeland since 
September 11. But we know they would like to do that. We know they are 
attacking places all over the globe.
  A number of Supreme Court decisions has impacted how these prisoners 
are to be held. The Department of Defense created, therefore, as a 
result of the court rulings what is called the combatant status review 
tribunal. Every prisoner in Guantanamo has been reviewed by the 
combatant status review tribunal. Annually, each prisoner there goes 
before the ARB, which is an annual review board, sort of like a parole 
board. If they can justify letting these prisoners go on that annual 
review, they let them go because the last thing we need is to be 
housing a bunch of prisoners that do not amount to a threat to our 
people.
  I will share this. I will not continue too long tonight. I want to 
share a few facts that are important. We are committed as a nation to 
high standards of duty in handling those we capture. Since this war has 
begun, there have been 10 major commissions and investigations 
empaneled to review allegations of misconduct. We have had commission 
after commission, review after review and, as I said, 29 plus 
congressional hearings. We have been alert to ensuring that prisoners 
are not abused in any systematic way and that those who violate the law 
are prosecuted for it.
  Let me carry on. There have been 1,700 interviews as a part of these 
investigations; 16,000 pages of documents delivered to Congress. 
Detention operation enhancements to improve our detention operations 
range from increased oversight to expanded training of the guards to 
improved facilities and new doctrines.
  When we have had a problem, we have dealt with it, we have confronted 
it, and we have improved the situation.
  Mr. President, 390-plus criminal investigations of American soldiers 
and Guards have been completed or are ongoing. More than 40 staff 
briefings have been given to the staff members of the Congress. People 
are being held accountable. They are really being held accountable. One 
general officer has been removed from command, received a general 
officer memorandum of reprimand. Thirty-five soldiers have been 
referred to trial by court-martial--35. Sixty-eight soldiers have 
received nonjudicial punishment, which is a career ender. Twenty-two 
memoranda of reprimand have been issued. Eighteen soldiers have been 
administratively separated from the Army. The Navy has had nine receive 
nonjudicial punishment. Fifteen marines have been convicted by court-
martial. Seven received nonjudicial punishment, and four have been 
reprimanded.
  We know in Abu Ghraib there was this uproar. This story had been 
broken by the media, one Senator said yesterday at our hearing. But if 
you remember, it was the general who made the briefing every day to the 
news media who announced, days before the media had any report of these 
abuses in Abu Ghraib, he had reports of abuses in Abu Ghraib prison and 
investigations were being commenced. And they commenced immediately. 
People were removed from command immediately and no more abuses took 
place in that prison from that date onward.
  We know since then, because we have had hearings and newspaper 
articles and investigative reports on TV, that these people who 
violated the rights of those prisoners were tried and convicted and are 
being sent to jail for long periods of time.
  Although none were seriously physically injured, as I recall, they 
were humiliated and handled in a way unbecoming of an American soldier. 
Those soldiers have been disciplined severely for their errors, and 
rightly so. I think it is something we should be proud of.
  Do you remember the colonel whose soldiers were under attack? He 
needed information from an Iraqi, and to get it, he fired a gun near 
the Iraqi's head. He did not hurt him in any way. And this terrorist 
gave information that helped save soldiers' lives. And they cashiered 
him out of the Army because he was not allowed to use that kind of 
action. We had a marine officer--who after 9/11 gave up his stock 
brokerage job to go and serve his country--be prosecuted, it now 
appears falsely, by a lower ranking soldier who made complaints against 
him, a soldier he had referred for disciplinary action. After full 
review, they dismissed all charges.
  This record is clear. This Government, our Nation, does not tolerate 
abuse. We have taken strong actions to see that it is not allowed and 
does not continue. But we have a duty to protect the people of our 
Nation. These detainees, these terrorists, who are being

[[Page 12908]]

held, these unlawful combatants present a risk to us.
  Some say, well, somehow we have made this all happen by being 
aggressive militarily. But I would remind my colleagues that for almost 
20 years al-Qaida, and groups like that, have been attacking our 
embassies, our marines, our soldiers--our warships, the USS Cole--
around the globe. We had been in a constant state of combat with Saddam 
Hussein truthfully since the gulf war in 1991. Up until the actual 
commencement of these hostilities, we were flying missions to enforce 
the no-fly zone under the U.N. resolutions. He was firing missiles at 
our aircraft, and we were dropping bombs on him.
  This is a dangerous part of the globe. That is why the Congress, when 
President Clinton was President, passed a resolution setting the policy 
of this Government to effect a regime change in Iraq.
  So this is what it is all about. It is a dangerous world out there. I 
want to call on my colleagues, with the greatest sincerity, to be 
careful what we say. Do not be telling the media, the world, speaking 
out in ways that suggest it is a policy in the actions of our military 
routinely to abuse prisoners. If prisoners are unlawfully treated, the 
guards are prosecuted. And the people who did it are prosecuted. It is 
not our policy to abuse prisoners. It does not happen on a regular 
basis. We do not tolerate it. We will not tolerate it. We will comply 
with the law and treat people appropriately.
  But when Senators come in hearings and to this floor and make 
statements in the news media--and when the news media writes reports, 
as was done about the Koran, saying it was flushed down the toilet--
they had to retract that story, bad things happen. After the false 
Koran incident a riot occurred because people in the Middle East 
believed that was true. They believed what they read in our national 
news, that we were unfairly or disrespectfully treating the Koran. 
Whereas in Guantanamo, our guards use gloves. They hold the Koran with 
both hands, in every way try to treat it in a respectful manner and 
make sure that every prisoner there is provided a copy, if they desire.
  So this is bad when we create a climate in this body that falsely 
characterizes our people. Yes, we make mistakes. Yes, if we do, they 
need to be fixed, and people ought to be punished. And I have shown we 
are punishing them. But it is wrong and irresponsible, and it places 
our soldiers whom we have sent in harm's way at greater risk when we 
suggest to that entire region of the world that we do not respect the 
faith of Islamic peoples, that we do not treat respectfully the 
prisoners who we apprehend, and that we are irresponsible, maybe even 
carrying on activities that are so bad as to be compared with Hitler, 
Pol Pot, or the Soviet Union. Those irresponsible comments can cost 
soldiers' lives. We need to be careful about it. If someone has proof 
of an individual act that amounts to a crime, let's see them bring it 
forward. Let's have an investigation. If somebody deserves to be 
prosecuted, let's prosecute them. But if not, quit making these 
statements. I think we have had enough hearings. As far as I am 
concerned, 29-plus is enough.
  The military has demonstrated, with all clarity, that they are 
prepared and willing to honestly and aggressively prosecute wrongdoers. 
They are also committed to protecting our citizens. They have given 
their lives, many of them, in that effort. They volunteered to serve in 
our military. They are the finest military this world has ever known. 
In the heat of combat they have shown restraint. They have not used 
heavy weapons, and they have held back in order to be sure innocent 
civilians are not injured. They do everything they can on a daily basis 
to reach out to the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, to appeal to their 
hearts and minds, to encourage them on the road to building a new and 
better life for themselves and their families. They do the things that 
Americans have no idea of on a daily basis to try to reach out and 
reconcile and improve our relationship with the people in that area of 
the globe.
  It is positively damaging to that effort when Members of Congress 
make the kinds of statements that have been made, when news media 
outlets, great organs of information, make mistakes, twist, exaggerate, 
misrepresent things that have occurred. It is not right. We need to 
show more responsibility. We need to show more discipline. It is not 
justified. No matter how strongly one feels politically and wants to 
try to blame the President for all these things, it is not just being 
heard in this body, it is not just the American people who are hearing 
criticisms of the President. These comments are being heard throughout 
the globe. It is not helpful to our efforts to build a better and more 
peaceful world.
  I thank the Chair for the opportunity to say these words, late at 
night though it is. I believe we are at a point where our Congress 
needs to improve its behavior. We need to show more restraint. If we do 
so, this will allow our soldiers to have a better chance to succeed at 
the difficult mission they have and the one they are working at so ably 
and so courageously.
  I yield the floor.

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