Lynn C. Woolsey: “America's treatment of prisoners over the last several years speaks poorly, and that is an understatement, to our…”

“America's treatment of prisoners over the last several years speaks poorly, and that is an understatement, to our national integrity. Since 9/11, prisoners have been tortured in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay, and considering the widespread use of torture, no one can claim that these are isolated incidents, that it is merely the work of a few bad apples. At a time when the United States is courting the support of the international world, particularly the Arab world, the torture of foreign prisoners gives the world's extremists and Iraqi insurgents what they believe to be a reason to hate the United States. There has been no better recruiting tool for al Qaeda than our attacking Iraq in the first place and the events at Abu Ghraib in the second place. Mr. Chairman, there is a better way to conduct foreign policy. I urge all of my colleagues to support the Markey amendment and to end the use of torture by the United States.”