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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 13, 2007
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Contact: Zach Goldberg
202-225-5801 (office) |
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HOLT INTRODUCES ‘DETAINEE INTERROGATION RECORDING ACT’
TO PREVENT ABUSES AND STRENGTHEN INTELLIGENCE EFFORTS
Holt Raised Issue with General Hayden at Closed-Door
Special Intelligence Oversight Panel on Thursday
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(Washington, D.C.) – Representative Rush Holt (NJ-12) today introduced the Detainee Interrogation Recording Act of 2007, legislation that would maximize intelligence derived from interrogations and help prevent detainee abuses such as those that happened in Abu Ghraib.
Holt’s bill would require the videorecording of all pertinent interactions between American government personnel or contractors, and detainees arrested in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. These records would be kept at the appropriate level of classification, and would be available to intelligence personnel who could examine them for any potential intelligence benefit.
“The recent revelations that the CIA destroyed tapes they had made of detainee interrogations make it clear that the Administration can no longer argue it can’t be done,” Holt said. “While the spotlight is on this issue, Congress should take prompt, transparent, and effective correction action so that we can help ensure good, sound intelligence and begin rebuilding our moral and political standing in the world.”
In addition to requiring videorecording of detainee interrogations, Holt’s bill would require the Judge Advocate General (under the Army JAG’s leadership) to develop guidelines for ensuring that the required videorecording is expansive enough to prevent abuses of detainees’ fundamental human rights under U.S. and international law. Finally, all prisoners and detainees would be afforded access to representatives of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent for independent monitoring of their conditions and treatment, consistent with America’s obligations under the Geneva Conventions.
Videorecording of prisoner interrogations is already employed widely by U.S. law enforcement agencies, and it would help linguists and other counterterrorism specialists get the most information possible out of interrogations.
In May, the House nearly approved Holt’s initiative – offered as an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2008 National Defense Authorization Act – but the Bush Administration opposed the amendment, and it was narrowly defeated.
On Thursday at a closed-door session of the Special Intelligence Oversight Panel, which he chairs, Holt urged CIA Director Hayden to support the legislation, which would put the CIA’s recording of interrogations on a legal footing and ensure proper oversight of the program.
The United States can successfully conduct the videorecording of detainee interrogations without compromising the safety of U.S. government personnel. Technology exists to mask the faces and voices of interrogators, if necessary.
“What we cannot do is allow this discussion to degenerate into a debate over technologies and techniques. We must keep the large issue in focus. The scandals that erupted in the wake of abuses at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere have led many across the world to doubt America’s commitment to human rights. They have stained the honor of the United States, and put its brave men and women in uniform in greater danger. The news of the CIA’s potentially illegal destruction of interrogation recordings only further underscores the need to act on this legislation.
“Furthermore, I suspect that important intelligence has been lost because tapes are not routinely available for interrogators and analysts to review,” Holt said.
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