May 6, 2004

HARMAN SUPPORTS RESOLUTION TO CONDEMN ABUSE
OF PRISONERS IN IRAQ
-Decries Failure to Consult Congress Adequately -

Washington, DC - Congresswoman Jane Harman (D-36), Ranking Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, released the following floor statement in support of the H. Res. 627, Deploring the Abuse of Persons in US Custody in Iraq:

"I support this resolution, though I wish it had called for a thorough investigation by Congress of the acts described in it. Our Nation is strong, not only because of our military might, but because of our values. In peacetime, those values may seem easy to uphold, but in wartime they are inevitably going to be tested. To keep us strong, we must reaffirm to the American people and the world that those values permeate everything we do as Nation, at home and all over the world.

"We are not naïve. We know that the fog of war is thick, and we understand, certainly those of us on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence understand, that interrogation is an integral part of gathering intelligence about the enemy. Good intelligence hopefully prevents and disrupts attacks. That saves lives.

"Many of us on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence care deeply that we get it right. I have traveled to Guantanamo three times to assess the effectiveness of our interrogations and to assure that detainees are being treated properly. While I strongly disagree with the lack of legal status for Guantanamo's detainees, I have been increasingly impressed by the tangible improvements in prisoner treatment and by the yield from interrogations.

"I have been to Baghdad twice, again focused on intelligence issues. There was no hint in my second visit to Baghdad in February of this year, a month after the devastating photos were delivered to the Pentagon, that anything was amiss with respect to interrogations in Iraq.

"My colleagues and I were doing our job to make sure things were done right, but the failure to alert us to the circumstances that led to the request of General Taguba to prepare his report was a failure by the intelligence community to keep our committee informed. It was a failure by the executive branch to keep Congress informed.

"After everything this country has been through over the past three years, the horrors at Abu Ghraib make crystal clear the need for major intelligence reform. It is not acceptable for people to retreat into "chain of command" stovepipes. It is not credible that a few bad apples carried out what the Taguba report calls 'numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses" without any explicit or implicit tolerance from those who supervised them.

"Tom Friedman writes today, 'We are in danger of losing something much more important than just the war in Iraq. We are in danger of losing America as an instrument of moral authority and inspiration in the world.'"

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