Washington, D.C. Representative Jane Harman (CA-36), Chair of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence and Terrorism Risk Assessment, today delivered the following statement on the House floor in support of the FY2008 Intelligence Authorization bill:

As a member of the Intelligence Committee for eight years – the last four as Ranking Member – I remain passionate about intelligence issues and very proud of the thousands of my constituents who comprise the industrial base that builds America’s intelligence satellites.

This the first intelligence authorization conference report in three years.  It is the House’s main tool for setting direction and conducting oversight of our Intelligence Community.  It includes new tools, record funding, investments in language training – and a provision I have pushed for years:  multi-level clearances.

I honor and support the work of the brave women and men of our Intelligence Community around the world.  Often, their families cannot accompany them on their assignments – and, in many cases, do not even know what they do.  I visit them frequently and say thank you, again, on behalf of a grateful Nation.

Two items.  First, interrogations policy.  For years, I have urged a clear legal framework around detention and interrogation policy in the post-9/11 world.  The scandal over destruction of the interrogations videotapes was avoidable.  As Ranking Member in 2003, I wrote in the letter to the CIA’s General Counsel that planned destruction of tapes was ill-advised.  The Intelligence Committee was not advised in 2005 that the tapes were destroyed – and the thorough hearings now in progress may reveal that the Committee was deliberately misled.  That would be disgraceful. 

There should not be a separate interrogations program.  That is why I support the Senate language requiring all interrogation procedures to conform to the Army Field Manual.

Second, the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran.  I have read it in its entirety and I am proud of those who wrote it.  They did careful work, and they spoke truth to power.

Intelligence is not policy.  It is a tool which helps policymakers develop policy.  Instead of blaming the messenger, policymakers and security experts should use the conclusions in the NIE to support tough sanctions, which we need, and diplomacy, which we lack.

They should also understand that this NIE identifies gaps in what we know.

This policymaker is wary of Iran’s possession of advance missiles, her work on many dual-use technologies that could be part of a “restarted” nuclear weapons program, and her ongoing sponsorship of terrorism.

The conference report is responsible – and needed.  Vote aye.