Senate Proceeding on May 12th, 2011 :: 0:25:00 to 0:34:20
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0:24:55 to 0:25:02( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: muhammed did not provide us with key leads on bin laden's

0:25:00 to 0:34:20( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: John McCain

0:25:03 to 0:25:26( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: currier, abu akman. it actually produced false and misleading information. khalid sheikh muhammed specifically told his interrogators that abu akman had moved to pashawar, got married and ceased his role as an al qaeda facilitator, which was not true, as we now know.

0:25:27 to 0:25:51( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: all we learned about abu akman al-kuwaiti through the use of waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation techniques against khalid sheikh muhammed was a confirmation of the already known fact that the currier existed and used an alias. i have sought further information from the staff of the senate intelligence committee, and they confirmed for me that, in fact, the best

0:25:52 to 0:26:13( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: intelligence came from a c.i.a. detainee, information describing al-kuwaiti's real role in al qaeda and his true relationship to osama bin laden was obtained through standard, noncoercive means, not through any enhanced interrogation technique. in short, it was not torture or

0:26:14 to 0:26:35( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: cruel, inhuman, degrading treatment of detainees that got us the major leads that ultimately enabled our intelligence community to find osama bin laden. i hope former attorney general mukasey will correct his misstatement. it's important that he do so because we're again engaged in this important debate. with much at stake for america's

0:26:36 to 0:26:56( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: security and reputation. each side should make its own case, but do so without making up its own facts. for my part, i would oppose any legislation if any should be proposed that is intended to authorize the administration to return to the use of waterboarding or other methods

0:26:57 to 0:27:19( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: of interrogation that i sincerely believe are torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading and as such unworthy and injurious to our country. this debate is ongoing, but i don't believe it will lead to a change in current policy prohibiting these methods. so perhaps this is just a debate

0:27:20 to 0:27:40( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: for the history books, but it is still important because americans in a future age as well as their leaders might face these same questions. we should do our best to provide them a record of our debates and decisions that is notable, not just for its passion but for its deliberativeness and for opinions that were informed by

0:27:41 to 0:28:02( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: facts, informed with scrupulous care by both sides for the security of the american people and the success of the ideals we cherish. we have a duty to leave future american generations with a history that will offer them not confusion but instruction as they face their crease east and challenges and try to lead

0:28:03 to 0:28:24( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: america safely and honorably through them. both sides can't be right, of course, but both sides can be honest, diligent and sincere. let me briefly elaborate my reasons for opposing the return to these interrogation policies. obviously, to defeat our enemies, we need intelligence,

0:28:25 to 0:28:45( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: but intelligence that is reliable. we should not torture or treat inhumanely terrorists we have captured. i believe the abuse of prisoners harms, not helps, our war effort. in my personal experience, the abuse of prisoners sometimes produces good intelligence but

0:28:46 to 0:29:06( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: often produces bad intelligence. because under torture, a person will say anything he thinks his captors want to hear, whether it is true or false, if he believes it will relieve his suffering. often, information provided to stop the torture is deliberately misleading. and what the advocates of cruel

0:29:07 to 0:29:28( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: and harsh interrogation techniques can never prove is that we could not have gathered the same intelligence through other more humane means, as a review of the facts provides solid reason to be confident that we can. the costs of assuming otherwise can be hugely detrimental. it has been reported in the

0:29:29 to 0:29:50( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: staff of the senate intelligence committee confirms for me that a man named iban asheik al-ribi, where we believe he was tortured and providing false information about saddam hussein's weapons of mass that false information was

0:29:51 to 0:30:12( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: ultimately included in secretary of state colin powell's statement to the u.n. security council and i assume helped influence the bush administration's decision to invade iraq. furthermore i think it's supremely unfair to the men and women in our intelligence community who labored for a

0:30:13 to 0:30:34( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: decade to locate bin laden bin laden to claim followsly that they only succeed because we succeeded because we used torture to extract intelligence from a few detainees several years ago. i have not found evidence to suggest that torture,

0:30:35 to 0:30:56( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: interrogation methods that i believe are torture, which i believe are prohibited by u.s. law and international treaty obligations, we're not just a party to, but leading advocates of, played an important part in finding and killing bin laden. rather, i think his death at the hands of the united states

0:30:57 to 0:31:18( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: argues quite the contrary, that we can succeed without resort to these methods. it's also the case of the mistreatment of enemy prisoners endangers our own troops who might some day be held captive. while some enemies in a al qaeda

0:31:19 to 0:31:40( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: will never have reciprocity, we should be concerned by those of more conventional enemies, if not in this war, then the next. until 1970 north korea ignored its obligations not to mistreat the americans they held prisoner claiming we were engaged in an unlawful war against them and

0:31:41 to 0:32:03( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: thus not entitled to the protections of the geneva conventions. when their abuses became widely known, they subsequently decreased their mistreatment of our p.o.w.'s. some have argued if it is right to kill bin laden, it should also be right to torture him had

0:32:04 to 0:32:25( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: he been captured rather than killed. i disagree. first, the americans who killed bin laden were on a military mission against the leader of a terrorist organization with which we are at war. it was not a law enforcement operation or primarily an intelligence operation. they could not be certain that bin laden, even though he was unarmed, did not possess some

0:32:26 to 0:32:46( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: means of harming them, a suicide vest, for instance, and they were correctly instructed to take no unnecessary chances in the completion of their mission. second, bin laden was a mass murder. had we captured him we would -- he would have eventually received the ultimate sanctions for his terrible crimes.

0:32:47 to 0:33:07( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: as captured war criminals in previous wars have. but war criminals captured, tried, and executed in world war ii, for instance, were not tortured in advance of their execution either in retaliation for their crimes or to illicit -- elicit information that might have helped us locate, apprehend and convict

0:33:08 to 0:33:30( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: other war criminals. this was not done because civilized nations have long made a distinction between killing and injuring in the heat of combat on the one hand and the deliberate infliction of torture on an encompass titted fighter on -- encompass tated fighter on the other.

0:33:31 to 0:33:51( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: this is not only longstanding american values an practices, but also in the geneva conventions that provide legal protections for our own fighting men and women. all of these arguments have the force of right, but ultimately even they are beside the most important point. there are many arguments to be made against torture on

0:33:52 to 0:34:13( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: practical grounds. as i have said, i believe torture produces unreliable information, hinders our fight against global terrorism and harms our national interest and reputation. but, ultimately, this debate is about far more than technical or practical issues.

0:34:14 to 0:34:20( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: it's about far more than whether torture works or does not work. it is about far more than