Chris Dodd: “If I may respond, it is not an illegitimate concern in talking about personnel. We have all seen what could happen when…”

“If I may respond, it is not an illegitimate concern in talking about personnel. We have all seen what could happen when you have people operating who are unregulated. In some cases, contractors have worked out of the Department of the Interior, so there is no supervision by the DOD. We are asking these people, unregulated, with no clear lines of authority, to do these things, and we have seen what happens when that occurs. It appears this is getting out of hand by private contractors. In the area of intelligence gathering, dealing with sensitive matters--sensitive to the issue of having enough personnel on the ground to do these things--I am far more worried about the fact of rogue elements being able to cause us tremendous harm. I think all would admit certainly that the result of what happened in Abu Ghraib prison and what the world knows today has been tremendously harmful to the United States and potentially to our men and women in uniform who may be subjected to interrogations. We know we are going to see the answers raised by others. I provided in the amendment some leeway to allow for a period of time so it would not be required to have an immediate requirement that all of these individuals be replaced on the adoption of this particular law but allow for some leeway.”