Political Quotes

“Thank you very much, Mr. President. I thank the distinguished chairman for this time. I do not think I will take 15 minutes. We have worked it down. I join Senator McCain and Ranking Member Reed--as well as Senator Collins and the other cosponsors, Senators Leahy, Paul, King, Flake, Heinrich, Whitehouse, Mikulski, Wyden, Murphy, Hirono, Warner, Baldwin, Brown and Markey--in offering an amendment that will help ensure the United States never again carries out coercive and abusive interrogation techniques or indefinite secret detentions. I am very pleased that the Senate will consider this amendment, and I urge an aye vote. The amendment we are offering today is really very simple. It applies the authorizations and restrictions for interrogations in the Army Field Manual to the entire U.S. Government. It extends what Congress did in 2005, by a vote of 90 to 9, with the Detainee Treatment Act--which I believe Senator McCain authored--which banned the Department of Defense from using techniques not authorized by the Army Field Manual and also banned the government from using cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment or punishment. The amendment also requires prompt access by the International Committee of the Red Cross to any detainee held by the U.S. Government. Both of these provisions are consistent with United States policy for the past several years, but this amendment would codify these requirements into law.…”