Dick Cheney

February 13, 2008 -- WASHINGTON, DC— Today, Senator Edward M. Kennedy released the following statement on the passage by the United States Senate of the Intelligence Authorization Bill, which includes provision that will require all U.S. Government interrogators to comply with the Army Field Manual’s standards on interrogation.    » read more »

(As Prepared for Delivery)

February 13, 2008 -- The Senate will soon vote on the Intelligence Authorization Bill, which contains a provision requiring all U.S. government agencies, including the CIA, to comply with the Army Field Manual’s prohibition on torture. This reform is urgently needed, and I commend the Intelligence Conferees for adopting this provision. Its enactment will ensure that the government uses only interrogation techniques that are lawful.    » read more »

February 11, 2008 -- Recognizing that the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan will not be the last of their kind, a new RAND Corporation study issued today finds that U.S. capabilities to meet the threat of Islamist insurgencies are seriously deficient and out of balance.    » read more »

Death Penalty in Flawed Military Commissions Should Not Be an Option

Washington, DC, February 11, 2008 – The trials of six Guantanamo detainees being charged for their role in the September 11, 2001 attacks should be moved from the Guantanamo military commissions to US federal courts, Human Rights Watch said today.    » read more »

In 2005, the Army Reportedly Suppressed RAND's Postwar Iraq Study from Congress

February 11, 2008 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) today sent the following letter to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, calling on him to immediately release an unclassified study of the postwar planning for Iraq prepared by the RAND Corporation in 2005. According to press accounts, the Army suppressed the RAND study after it concluded that the Bush Administration failed to address the enormity of Iraq's reconstruction challenges.    » read more »

February 8, 2008 -- Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) today urged the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Michael McConnell to provide the transcript of a recent interview with New Yorker writer Lawrence Wright. At issue is the exact conversation held between Director McConnell and Wright over the subject of waterboarding. Senator Feinstein questioned Director McConnell about this exchange during the open Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Tuesday.

Following is the text of the letter sent by Senator Feinstein to DNI McConnell:    » read more »

07 February 2008 -- Lawmakers pressed the U.S. attorney general on Thursday for more specifics about the legal justifications used by the Bush administration in authorizing the past use of the extreme interrogation technique known as waterboarding. The subject was also a major topic in congressional hearings, and the focus of more questions at a White House briefing, as the debate continues over interrogation techniques.    » read more »

February 6, 2008 -- Washington, DC – Following recent statements by the U.S. Attorney General and the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, U.S. Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D-DE) reiterated his call for the Senate to support the National Security with Justice Act (S.1876), legislation that prohibits all United States personnel from using on a detainee any interrogation technique not expressly authorized by the Army Field Manual on Intelligence Interrogation.    » read more »

06 February 2008 -- The White House is defending the use of the interrogation technique known as waterboarding in certain, rare circumstances when suspects are believed to have knowledge of an imminent threat. The Central Intelligence Agency now admits it used the technique roughly five years ago on three top terror suspects.

White House spokesman Tony Fratto says President Bush personally authorized the disclosure - breaking with the long-standing practice in the administration of refusing comment on specific interrogation techniques.    » read more »

February 5, 2008 -- Washington, D.C. -- In response to CIA Director Hayden’s admission today that the Administration has used waterboarding on three detainees, Senator Dick Durbin called for the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation of the Administration’s use of waterboarding.    » read more »

05 February 2008 -- The director of the Central Intelligence Agency has confirmed that his agency used the extreme interrogation technique known as waterboarding on three terrorism suspects nearly five years ago. In testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee Tuesday, Michael Hayden urged lawmakers not to place restrictions on the interrogation methods available to U.S. intelligence agencies.

Director Hayden's testimony was the most detailed description to date of the CIA's use of enhanced interrogation techniques.    » read more »

January 30, 2008 -- "I had hoped today would provide more clarity on so many critical issues. Instead, we heard references to legal opinions, justifications, and facts that remain hidden from Congress and the American people.

It is a hallmark of our democracy that we say publicly what the laws are and what conduct they prohibit. We have seen what happens when hidden decisions rendered in secret memos are withheld from the people’s elected representatives and from the American people. It erodes our civil liberties and undermines our values as a nation of laws.    » read more »

January 23, 2008 -- [Washington, D.C.] – All ten Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee today sent a letter, written by Assistant Majority Leader and Judiciary Committee member Dick Durbin (D-IL), to Attorney General Michael Mukasey asking that he provide an opinion as to whether the interrogation technique known as waterboarding is illegal under U.S. law.    » read more »

January 23, 2008 -- WASHINGTON, DC— Today, Senator Edward M. Kennedy and nine Senate colleagues sent the following letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey, asking him to clarify his positions on waterboarding and other interrogation techniques.    » read more »

17 January 2008 -- A report issued by a U.S.-based human rights group is criticizing the Justice Department for failing to hold private security contractors operating in Iraq and Afghanistan responsible for acts of violence. The report was released Wednesday in Washington.

The report by the New York-based Human Rights First says private security contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan are not being held accountable for excessive use of force, which has given rise to what the group calls "shoot first, ask questions later, or never."    » read more »