WASHINGTON, DC -- U.S. Senator Kit Bond, Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, today criticized a last-minute addition to the Intelligence Authorization bill, which, if passed, will handcuff our law enforcement and intelligence agents.

 

            “Because of this last minute amendment, this bill would tie the hands of our terror fighters,” said Bond.  “I am disappointed that my Democratic colleagues have tried to kill an important tool in our efforts to fight terror.”

 

            House and Senate conferees completed their work last night reconciling the two Intelligence Authorization bills.  Bond noted that he was pleased with the conference process right up to the very end.  All parties worked in a bipartisan manner over the last few weeks to negotiate a middle ground between the two bills. 

 

            Unfortunately, the conference agreed to a last-minute addition found in neither the House or Senate’s original bills that would limit the CIA and FBI to just those interrogation tactics that are contained in the U.S. Army’s Field Manual on Interrogation.  Bond stressed that this amendment would handcuff our intelligence agents and impair our interrogation operations -- one of the best sources of intelligence in the war on terrorism. 

 

            Bond pointed out that Congress already fought the battle over interrogation techniques in the consideration of the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, and the Military Commissions Act of 2006.  During consideration of the legislation, which clarified the United States’ strict adherence to standards that forbid torture, Congress agreed that the Army Field Manual - written as a training document for the Army - was not an appropriate standard for the CIA.  Bond stressed that the CIA is prohibited by treaty and law from using torture or cruel, degrading or inhuman techniques.

 

            Neither the CIA nor the FBI was consulted in the formulation of the Army Field Manual, and neither has had a chance to ensure that the techniques are appropriate to their operations.  Bond emphasized that CIA’s interrogators are highly trained and operate under tremendous oversight and supervision, and just as importantly, they are interrogating some of the most hardened terrorists who are not going to succumb to the Army Field Manual’s techniques. 

 

            “The wide availability of the new Army Field Manual on the internet makes it almost certain that Al Qaeda is training its operatives to resist the techniques that it authorizes,” Bond said.

 

             Bond, who voted against the Intelligence Authorization Conference Report stressed that unless the Army Field Manual amendment is removed, the President would be right to veto the legislation. 

 

            “We haven’t had an intelligence bill in three years.  We were getting very close to one finally, but unfortunately, members voted for a short-sighted, feel-good amendment that turns an otherwise solid, bipartisan bill into an irresponsible piece of legislation,” said Bond.

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