Letter from Pat Roberts re: torture

Thank you for writing regarding U.S. military detention and interrogation policies. I appreciate your taking the time to contact me.

On October 5, the Senate approved an amendment offered by Senator John
McCain (R-AZ) that limits interrogation techniques to those listed in
the Army's interrogation field manual and restates current law on the use of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. I have said many times before that abusive techniques are not only unworthy of this great nation, they are also not effective in obtaining reliable information. While I understand the intent of Senator McCain, I could not support an amendment that fundamentally was based on incorrect assumptions and which threatens to jeopardize the usefulness of future interrogations.

The amendment assumes that substantiated instances of abuse have not
been adequately addressed. This is simply incorrect. The Department of
Defense, the military services, the Intelligence Community, numerous inspectors general, and the Department of Justice have investigated those few instances in which individuals have been alleged to have violated the Constitution, laws, or treaty obligations of the United States during the course of an interrogation. Where such allegations have been substantiated, the individuals have been punished.

Moreover, the amendment prevents our Armed Forces from using humane
interrogation techniques that would otherwise be lawful. The amendment
ties U.S. statute to a field manual – a document that provides broad,
doctrinal guidance for training and conducting interrogations in the
field. The current field manual does not list every interrogation
technique that is lawful under our Constitution, laws, and treaties,
nor is it possible to foresee, and list in a manual, every scenario that could occur in the context of an interrogation. To arbitrarily limit in statute the techniques available to the men and women in uniform will certainly jeopardize the effectiveness of this intelligence tool. We can be sure that terrorists and other enemies will train themselves in deception of all of the techniques listed in the manual.

We are at war. Terrorist interrogations are the single best source of
actionable intelligence against the plans and intentions of our enemy.
The information gleaned from interrogating terrorists is saving lives and preventing attacks on the homeland. We should be supporting the men and women in uniform. In light of these facts, I could not support an amendment that presumes that the vast majority of them are not serving honorably, arbitrarily limits the usefulness of a crucial intelligence tool, and simply restates existing bans on cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.

Thank you again for contacting me.