HARMAN INTRODUCES BILL TO ESTABLISH LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR INTERROGATIONS AND CLOSE GUANTANAMO BAY PRISON

Together with Reps. Conyers, Eshoo and Nadler, Harman says Bush policies have “provided a huge recruiting tool to al Qaeda” and must be changed.

Washington, D.C. --- Rep. Jane Harman, Chair of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence and Terrorism Risk Assessment, together with Judiciary Committee Chair John Conyers, Intelligence Subcommittee Chair Anna Eshoo, and Judiciary Subcommittee Chair Jerome Nadler, today introduced legislation establishing strict guidelines for interrogation of any individual held by U.S. intelligence agencies and requiring the closure of the prison facility at Guantanamo Bay. The bill is companion legislation to S. 147, introduced by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, earlier this week.

Harman introduced or supported portions of this legislation in the 110th Congress. H.R. 2212 would have closed Guantanamo Bay prison, and H.R. 1415 and H.R. 1416, introduced with Rep. Nadler, would have restored Habeas Corpus for detainees and reformed the Military Commission process.

Harman’s statement on the new legislation is below:

Today, we are introducing legislation that will begin a long-needed course correction in U.S. interrogation policies.

In the months and years after the September 11 terrorist attacks, I repeatedly urged the Bush Administration to establish a legal framework that allowed the United States to identify, detain, and interrogate those who would harm us while protecting our fundamental values.  Instead, the Administration claimed for itself the right to ignore core provisions of US law regarding the treatment of detainees.  It brushed aside international agreements like the Geneva Convention, which have both protected our troops and set the bar for human rights. 

The result is that United States has paid a steep price in eroded moral authority.  We’ve flouted the very legal protections that we’ve tried to export to the rest of the world.  We’ve undermined the international human rights standards that we helped create.  And we’ve provided a huge recruiting tool to al Qaeda.

For many years, the sponsors of this legislation have fought to restore respect for the law and human rights to our detention and interrogation policies.

Now, with the election of a new President, we believe that goal is within reach.  This legislation is an essential first step.

First, the bill requires the closure of the prison facility at Guantanamo Bay.  The prison is so widely viewed as illegitimate, so plainly inconsistent with America’s proud legal traditions, that it has become a stinging symbol of our tarnished standing abroad.

The Supreme Court has brought the curtain down on the legal fiction on which the prison was premised.  It’s time for Congress to take the next step and close it permanently.

Our bill would require the President to close the facility within one year of enactment and give him a range of choices for dealing with the detainees.  These options include transfer to a detainee’s country of origin (so long as that country provides certain assurances regarding treatment of the detainee); transfer to a facility in the United States to be tried before military or civilian authorities (like the first 1993 World Trade Center bombers, who are currently being held in Supermax prisons in the United States); transfer to a qualified international tribunal; or, if appropriate, outright release.

Second, the bill prohibits the interrogation of any individual held by a U.S. intelligence agency or its contractors using any technique or treatment not authorized by the United States Army Field Manual on Human Intelligence Collector Operations.  Torture and abusive treatment is not only contrary to American values, the law, and international human rights agreements, there is no evidence that it yields reliable intelligence.  This legislation will require that our intelligence agencies do not engage in such practices.

Third, the bill forbids the Central Intelligence Agency from using a contractor or subcontractor to carry out an interrogation, ending a practice that has been fraught with abuse.

Finally, the bill requires that the intelligence community provide the International Committee of the Red Cross with access to any individual in its custody, providing transparency and accountability that will restore the world’s confidence in our detention and interrogation practices.  The notion that our country essentially “disappeared” some detainees is abhorrent – we are not the Soviet Gulag or the Chilean military.

The portions of the legislation relating to the prison facility at Guantanamo Bay are identical to H.R. 2212, which I introduced in the 110th Congress, and the remaining provisions are identical to legislation introduced earlier this week by Senator Dianne Feinstein.
 
We urge swift passage in both chambers.

 

Return to Top