Political Quotes

“A few weeks ago, I spoke in this Chamber about the U.N. report that outlined, in gruesome detail, prisoner abuse at detention facilities in Afghanistan--inmates beaten with electrical wires, hung from their wrists, and much worse. Now additional reporting by The Washington Post has revealed that U.S. officials knew for some time about this torture of prisoners by Afghan security forces. So what did our top people in Afghanistan do about these warnings? Apparently, not a thing. For years our Special Operations forces and CIA officials had been in and out of these prisons--dropping off detainees, meeting with Afghan authorities, taking advantage of the intelligence gathered there. We paid to rebuild one prison with the cold and chilling name Department 124, which sits behind a concrete fortress near U.S. military headquarters in Kabul. It would be hard--actually, it would be impossible--to miss what was going on inside those walls; but for a long time, it was ignored-- nothing said, no meaningful oversight exerted. It wasn't until a few months ago, when the U.N. made it clear they were releasing a report detailing the torture, that our military commanders suddenly took notice and stopped sending prisoners to these facilities. In a flash, they instituted a monitoring program and human rights training. {time} 1050 It's embarrassing, Mr. Speaker.…”