Scandal

(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 12, 2008 -- Washington, D.C.—Nevada Senator Harry Reid made the following statement today, calling on Republicans to support the Intelligence Authorization conference report and establish a single standard of interrogation that does not permit torture:

“When the Intelligence Authorization conference report comes to the floor tomorrow, Republicans should join us to support one standard of interrogation – as outlined in the Army Field Manual – for the entire government.    » read more »

Urges President to Remove Veto Threat from Intelligence Authorization Bill

February 12, 2008 -- Washington, DC — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton today called on President Bush to remove his threat to veto the Fiscal Year 2008 Intelligence Authorization Bill, which applies the U.S. Army standards for interrogation to U.S. intelligence agencies and contractors, and bans the practice of waterboarding. In a letter to the President, Senator Clinton urged him to live up to the standards that America has promoted around the world.    » read more »

12 February 2008 -- The U.S. Senate Tuesday voted to renew a controversial surveillance law set to expire at the end of the week. Lawmakers left intact a provision to shield telephone companies from lawsuits for their role in the Bush administration's wiretap program, despite opposition from many Democrats.

The Senate voted to extend a law which authorizes U.S. intelligence agencies to monitor - without warrants - telephone calls and emails between Americans and suspected terrorists overseas.    » 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 »

WASHINGTON (Thursday, Feb. 7, 2008) – Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), who also sits on the panel, sent a letter Thursday urging Attorney General Michael Mukasey to clarify testimony given to the Committee during last week’s Department of Justice oversight hearing. In the letter, they ask the Attorney General to explain the scope of the Department’s investigation into the CIA’s destruction of videotapes showing the use of harsh interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, of al Qaeda terrorist suspects.    » read more »

February 6, 2008 -- Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) today asked Attorney General Michael Mukasey whether it is legal for the CIA to rely on contractors in interrogations that involve the use of coercive interrogation techniques.

Senator Feinstein’s letter came one day after CIA Director General Michael Hayden, in response to questions from Senator Feinstein during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, acknowledged for the first time that the CIA sometimes uses contractors in interrogations.    » 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 »

Contrary to US Claims, Human Rights Watch Opposes Khadr Prosecution

Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, February 5, 2008 – The US government fundamentally misrepresented Human Rights Watch’s position to justify its prosecution of Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen facing charges for war crimes allegedly committed when he was just 15, Human Rights Watch said today.    » 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 »

February 5, 2008 -- WASHINGTON, DC— Today, the U.S. Department of Education informed Congress that seven Federal Family Education Program lenders will be allowed to resume billing for “9.5% loans,” the category of student loans under which lenders are eligible to receive an inflated 9.5% rate of return.    » 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 »