Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) introduced the Lawful Interrogation and Detention Act today in speeches made on the Senate floor. The bill would close detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay within 12 months and would work to reform interrogation methods used by intelligence agencies.
Here are some of the key provisions, as listed in a press release issued by Feinstein’s office:
- Requires the closure of the detention facilities at Guantanamo within one year. All individuals held at Guantanamo must be:
- Charged with crimes and tried in the United States through the federal criminal justice or the military justice system;
- Transferred to an international tribunal, if one has jurisdiction to hold trials for such individuals;
- Transferred back to their native country or to the custody of another country;
- If the other options can’t be followed and the individual is determined to pose no security threat, released; or
- Held in accordance with the law of armed conflict.
- Requires the CIA and all other intelligence agencies to use only the 19 specific interrogation techniques that are authorized by the Army Field Manual on Human Intelligence Collector Operations. This requirement would put intelligence interrogations under the same legal requirement for all Department of Defense agencies, thus creating a clear, single standard across the U.S. Government;
- Prohibits the CIA from using private contractors to conduct interrogations of detainees; and
- Requires the intelligence community to notify the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) of any detainees being held, and to provide the ICRC with access to those detainees.
The legislation is also sponsored by Senators John Rockefeller (D-WV) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI). Senator Feinstein now chairs the Select Committee on Intelligence.
