FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Washington, D.C.) –U.S. Rep. Rush Holt (NJ-12), who has served as Chair of the Select Intelligence Oversight Panel for two years and as a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence for six years today issued the following statement on President Obama’s Executive Orders on detainee treatment, including the order to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center within one year. Holt also urged the President to support his legislation to require the videorecording of all interactions between American government personnel or contractors, and detainees arrested in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. These records would be kept at the appropriate level of classification, and would be available to intelligence personnel who could examine them for any potential intelligence benefit.
“President Obama promised to take swift action to bring this sorry chapter in our nation’s history to an end, and today he took the first, significant step to do so. Today’s orders will begin the process of putting our detainee policies back on a sound legal footing while maintaining our ability to get actionable intelligence. I am confident that the Obama Administration will continue to restore our nation’s credibility and moral leadership.
When he was an Illinois State Senator, Barack Obama supported legislation to require law enforcement to videotape those in custody to get the best results of interrogations and to document the procedures and treatment followed. I urge him to support my legislation, passed last year in the House of Representatives, to require the recording of all interrogations of those in American custody.”
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