Eshoo Introduces Bill to Close Guantanamo Bay Detention Facilities and Ban Extreme Torture Methods

January 9, 2009
Press Release

Washington, DC - Today, Rep. Anna G. Eshoo (D-Palo Alto) introduced abill that will provide for a legal, effective, and humane system ofgathering intelligence and holding suspected terrorists. Thelegislation will require the closure of the detention facilities atGuantanamo and require the CIA and all other intelligence agencies touse the 19 specific interrogation techniques that are authorized by theArmy Field Manual on Human Intelligence Collector Operations.

"This legislation protects our country and U.S. servicemen abroad bybanning the use of cruel and inhumane interrogation methods and closingthe detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay. For years the documentedreports of detainee abuses at Guantanamo have undermined U.S. effortsat home and abroad. The bill also incorporates legislation that Iintroduced in the last Congress that bans extreme interrogationmethods, such as waterboarding," said Eshoo.

The Lawful Interrogation and Detention Act of 2009 will:

• Require the closure of the detention facilities at Guantanamo withinone year.  All individuals held at Guantanamo must be:

o Charged with crimes and tried in the United States through thefederal criminal justice or the military justice system;o Transferred to an international tribunal, if one has jurisdiction tohold trials for such individuals;

o Transferred back to their native country or to the custody of anothercountry;

o If the other options can't be followed and the individual isdetermined to pose no security threat, released; oro Held in accordance with the law of armed conflict.

• Require the CIA and all other intelligence agencies to use only the19 specific interrogation techniques that are authorized by the ArmyField Manual on Human Intelligence Collector Operations. Thisrequirement would put intelligence interrogations under the same legalrequirement for all Department of Defense agencies, thus creating aclear, single standard across the U.S. Government;

• Prohibit the CIA from using private contractors to conductinterrogations of detainees; and

• Require the intelligence community to notify the InternationalCommittee of the Red Cross (ICRC) of any detainees being held, and toprovide the ICRC with access to those detainees.

The original sponsors of the bill introduced today are Rep. Anna Eshoo(D-CA), Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA), Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), andJudiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI). Companion legislationwas introduced this week in the Senate by Senator Dianne Feinstein(D-CA).

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