House Floor Statement of U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern on U.S. Policy Against Torture

Contact: Michael Mershon
(202) 225-6101

November 2, 2005

Mr. Speaker, this morning, the top story on the front page of the Washington Post describes in detail how the CIA has been hiding and interrogating al Qaeda and other prisoners in covert prisons around the globe.

No one knows what the rules of the game are for the interrogations that take place there. There is no accountability. No genuine oversight. In fact, information about these facilities and their practices has been deliberately withheld from Congress and the American people.

In effect, the prisoners in these jails simply "disappear."

Mr. Speaker, this is not what America stands for. This is more like Chile under Pinochet, or Argentina under the junta.

We now know why Vice President Cheney is so determined that the final Defense Appropriations Conference Report includes exceptions to Senator McCain's provision against torture and the Markey provision prohibiting rendition.

If those provisions are watered down or struck down by the defense conferees, then mark my words, Mr. Speaker, America will lose a piece of its soul.