Pete Sessions: “I will try to conclude and sum this up. This country was attacked by a very dangerous group of people. I certainly…”

“I will try to conclude and sum this up. This country was attacked by a very dangerous group of people. I certainly respect my colleagues' concern and commitment that our prisoners be treated humanely and consistent with the rules of war. I have also said that the rules of the Geneva Conventions do not apply to these unlawful combatants. The field manual is an Army Department of Defense document that sets the rules for our conduct. But the DOD can alter that. As I understand what this amendment would do, it would make the field manual, with regard to the section involving interrogation and intelligence, the equivalent of law; that before the Army or Department of Defense could make any changes in those field manuals, somebody would have to offer legislation in the House and the Senate, which would be subject to a filibuster and maybe we could fix it and maybe we could not. It becomes force of law. I think that is a mistake. Finally, alterations in procedure by which these prisoners or detainees were handled was done with review by the Department of Justice. We had Attorney General Gonzales, when he was White House counsel and Attorney General, testify about how it came about and all the legal research that went into it. We had the Department of Defense leadership discuss this. They reviewed it.…”