Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008

Floor Speech

INTELLIGENCE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2008 -- (House of Representatives - May 10, 2007)

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Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Madam Chairman, I rise today to address two matters in the intelligence authorization bill.

For too long, the intelligence community has been increasing its use of contractors without internal or congressional oversight. For the first time, the Director of National Intelligence has conducted a contractor survey to begin to get a handle on the situation. A simple survey, however, is not sufficient to understand how we are using contractors and whether the use of such contractors is appropriate.

This bill takes an important step towards understanding the use of contractors. It requires the DNI Inspector General to report on intelligence contractors committing waste, fraud or abuse. It also requires a report on contractor accountability and their effect on the workforce, all positive steps toward better oversight.

But there is one issue this bill does not address that I firmly believe raises a fundamental question as to who we are as a Nation. The President has acknowledged that the intelligence community kept prisoners in undisclosed detention sites and has reserved the right to do so in the future. We should reject this policy.

In Nazi Germany, millions of people were sent to camps, never to be heard from again. During the Cold War, thousands of people disappeared into gulags. Saddam Hussein's secret prisons still strike fear into the hearts of Iraqis. Each time, our Nation stood as a beacon of human rights and strongly objected to those practices. If we endorse any policy that allows undisclosed detention, we undermine our moral authority to stand against such atrocities in the future.

The United States should be beyond reproach in its treatment of detainees. In the first Gulf War, the International Committee of the Red Cross called U.S. compliance with the Geneva Conventions the best of any nation in any conflict in the history of the convention.

If we lower that standard for how we treat prisoners, we weaken our ability to insist on the highest standards of treatment for our own military personnel and civilians abroad, thus endangering their safety and undermining our standing in the world. More importantly, we sacrifice the principles on which this country is based.

I want to thank the chairman for considering all these important matters in the intelligence bill and for his leadership on this good bill.

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Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. I thank the gentleman for yielding to me, and I thank him for his leadership on this important amendment.

After the Cold War, the use of contractors began to grow, and their use exploded after September 11, 2001. Contractors now do more than just build military equipment and satellites. They also provide security, collect and analyze intelligence, provide technical support, and even perform planning and management tasks.

Mr. Price's amendment requires a review of what contractors are doing and, importantly, whether contractors are performing inherently governmental functions. There are some activities so sensitive that, if and when they are done, we must determine whether or not it is appropriate to contract these activities out.

In some cases, U.S. contractors' actions have caused great controversy. The Lincoln Group's contract to plant positive news stories in Iraq raised questions about manipulation of the Iraqi media. Dave Passaro, a CIA contractor was convicted of four counts of assaulting an Afghan detainee who later died. Contractors were implicated in the detainee abuse cases at Abu Ghraib.

These activities are controversial enough on their own, and if the U.S. engages in them, we should do so while accepting full responsibility and not hide behind contractors.

The Price-Schakowsky amendment would ask the DNI to review whether it is appropriate for contractors to engage in intelligence collection, analysis, covert actions, interrogations, detentions, rendition or electronic surveillance.

This is an important amendment, and I urge its adoption.

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