and human rights lawyers have been matched and indeed exceeded by our friends and colleagues in the military and intelligence communities who believe current policies have been devastating both to the safety of our troops and the security interests of our nations. As a distinguished coalition of retired admirals and generals wrote last fall, "understanding what is going wrong and what can be done to avoid systemic failure in the future is essential to ensure that the effectiveness of the U.S. military and intelligence operation is not compromised by an atmosphere of permissiveness, ambiguity or confusion." Even more starkly as one U.S. Army interrogator returning from Afghanistan noted, "The more a prisoner hates America, the harder he will be to break. The more a population hates America, the less likely its citizens will be to lead us to a suspect.' Our detention practices have inflamed our enemies and alienated potential allies and they continue to run contrary to the security imperatives this body seeks to protect. Finally, there can be no question that the investigations to date have been inadequate. As Human Rights first detailed at length in our recent report, Getting to Ground Truth, Government investigations so far have suffered from a lack of independence, failures to investigate relevant agencies and personnel, cumulative reporting, increasing the risk that error and omissions are perpetuating in successive reports, contradictory conclusions, questionable use of security classification withheld information, failures to address senior military and civilian responsibility, and an absence of any comprehensive game plan for corrective action. Human rights for the past 4 years Chairman SENSENBRENNER. The gentlewoman's time has expired. Ms. PEARLSTEIN. Can I conclude briefly? Ms. PEARLSTEIN. Our past 4 years of active engagement on these issues has persuaded us a 9/11-style commission, independent, bipartisan and of unassailable credibility is critical to understand finally what has gone wrong in the US detention interrogation operations, and to chart a way forward to accountability and correction. Today's hearing can be a valuable first step in taking seriously the cause of liberty and safety. And we thank you for your consideration. Chairman SENSENBRENNER. Thank you. [The prepared statement of Ms. Pearlstein follows:] PREPARED STATEMENT OF DEBORAH PEARLSTEIN Thank you for inviting Human Rights First to share our views on the reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act. My name is Deborah Pearlstein. I am the Director of the US Law and Security Program at Human Rights First. We greatly appreciate the opportunity to speak, and welcome your review today of the Patriot Act in the context of a much needed Congressional assessment of all U.S. counter-terrorism laws and policies. In my testimony today I would like to offer a few basic principles we hope the Committee will consider as it exercises its critical responsibility for reviewing and overseeing the authority given the Executive Branch under the PATRIOT Act. For nearly 30 years, Human Rights First, formerly the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, has worked in the United States and abroad to advance the values we believe all Americans share: a respect for justice and human dignity, and a com dispassionate legal analysis and pragmatic policy advice to help craft solutions to the most pressing human rights problems facing the world today. It was with these values-and this approach to our work-that Human Rights First responded to the attacks of September 11 by creating a new U.S. Law and Security Program to engage on the human rights questions presented by U.S. national security policies. As the first director of that program, and a constitutional lawyer by training, I approach this work starting from three guiding principles. First, Al Qaeda poses a very serious security threat to the American people, and the U.S. Government has the right and duty to protect Americans from attack. We thus welcome efforts to improve coordination among federal, state and local agencies, and between law enforcement and intelligence officials. Equally welcome are greater efforts to protect the nation's infrastructure supporting energy, transportation, food and water; efforts to strengthen the preparedness of our domestic frontline defenders, police, firefighters and emergency medical teams, as well as those working in public health. That recognition has meant for us, among other things, reaching out to members of the U.S. military and intelligence communities to understand the nature of the security challenge we face, and to discuss rights-respecting solutions that are equal to the challenge. We are proud to say that we have found many allies in these communities, and many areas of common cause. The second principle is that the governments that are most effective in safeguarding human security are those that operate strictly under the rule of law: that is, under a system in which people are governed by public laws that are set in advance, applied equally in all cases, and are binding and enforceable on both individuals and on the government that serves them. For this reason, we have worked hard to engage all three branches of government in fulfilling their responsibilities to sustain our rule-of-law system. We have participated as monitors at Guantanamo Bay as the President's military commission trials began; advocated in the courts to ensure in all cases independent judicial review; and urged the vigorous exercise of congressional oversight in all aspects of U.S. counterterrorism activities-most recently in leading bipartisan calls for Congress to appoint an independent commission to study the challenges of detention and interrogation in Afghanistan, Iraq, at Guantanamo and elsewhere. In this spirit, we strongly welcome this hearing today. Finally, we believe that the relationship between security and liberty is not zerosum. That taking rights away does not necessarily improve security. And likewise, that some of the most effective security-enhancing measures we have seen since September 11-including efforts to improve tracking of cargo containers coming into the United States, and a renewed commitment to disease surveillance to safeguard against biological attack-are broadly neutral with respect to rights. It is because we believe that the security costs and benefits that flow from laws cannot be gleaned simply from what rights they burden that we believe the PATRIOT Act discussion remains one in which more questions than answers remain. Homeland Security Department Secretary Chertoff emphasized recently the importance of risk-management principles in designing an effective approach to minimizing the threat of terrorism, urging that in "weigh[ing] the risks of a particular action, you conduct a cost-benefit analysis, and you factor these into your considerations." Four years in to the PATRIOT Act's implementation, we still lack a full, public accounting from the Department of Justice of the Act's use and its effects, for good and ill. Without this, we all remain poorly equipped to measure how much liberty or security we should cede. Underlying all of these principles is an idea the PATRIOT Act itself incorporates, in a provision we urge this Committee to champion anew-the idea of accountability. Section 804 of the Act in particular amends the definition of “special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States" to include "offenses committed by or against a national of the United States" on diplomatic, consular or military premises overseas. The Act thus now makes clear that the Department of Justice has jurisdiction to prosecute crimes by or against U.S. persons committed on these sites as part of this "special maritime and territorial jurisdiction." In light the sustained public focus on the ongoing detention of foreign nationals throughout the world, and the substantial hit our national security interests have taken as a result of these practices, using the power of the PATRIOT Act in this respect has never been more important. This Committee should oversee, enhance, and enforce this aspect of the PATRIOT Act and the Justice Department's pivotal role in carrying it out. With the powers that this Act and others like it provide comes the strict responsibility to enforce the laws as they exist. In including Section 804 in the Act originally, we believe Congress meant to signal its commitment to coupling new grants of power with equal measures of oversight and enforcement. Now is the time for Congress to strengthen tion of the United States. And where the Department of Justice falls short, this body must bear the weight. Thank you for considering our views. We welcome your active engagement and the opportunity to continue to work with you on these vitally important issues. Chairman SENSENBRENNER. Mr. Pitts. TESTIMONY OF CHIP PITTS, CHAIR OF THE BOARD, Mr. PITTS. Thank you, distinguished Chairman, Ranking Member and Committee Members. Amnesty international's millions of activists in the U.S. and in over 100 countries around the world call human rights violations as we see them, based on rigorous research and regardless of the government or armed group committing them. Our touchstone is international law, including the universal declaration of human rights and the Geneva conventions, international instruments that the U.S. helped create. Amnesty vigorously condemns terrorists attacks like the horror of 9/11. We also understand history's clear lesson that human rights and the rule of law are indispensable prerequisites to true security for all. The PATRIOT Act, along with other post 9/11 laws, executive orders and policies seriously undermine human rights, weaken the global human rights framework and contribute both to human rights violations and, we believe, increased terror attacks. The mere existence of such measures has a chilling effect on fundamental freedoms, including speech and association, religion and belief, privacy, due process and equal protection. These are U.S. constitutional rights. But they're also binding international law treaty obligations. Encouraging the presumption of guilt rather than innocence, the PATRIOT Act sweeps innocent people within its ambit. It has inspired a cascade of similar laws around the world that weaken the rule of law, so essential to protecting human rights, including the right to be protected from terrorist attacks. With active U.S. encouragement almost every country around the world now has new anti-terror legislation, often modeled on the USA PATRIOT Act. Abusive governments globally, including China, Cuba, Zimbabwe, Colombia, Egypt, Uzbekistan, now cite U.S. actions to justify their own violations. We urge Congress to correct the deficiencies of the PATRIOT Act by three main measures, restoring checks and balances, restoring individualized fact-based suspicion, and thirdly, independent judicial review. Amnesty is especially concerned about section 802's broad definition of domestic terrorism, which has already discouraged free association and peaceful dissent. Section 412's allowing indefinite detention merely upon the Attorney General's say-so, violating U.S. and international rights to due process and nondiscrimination, reduced or eliminated judicial review in sections like 215 and 505 which allow secret Government invasions of free thought, belief, religion, expression, press and privacy, and section 213's overbroad sneak-and-peak home search provision also infringing privacy rights. Congress should enforce the Patriot Act's current sunset provi eliminate, modify or sunset the other provisions infringing individual rights. Congressional oversight should also evaluate Justice Department compliance with section 1001 to ensure that abuses under the PATRIOT Act are fully investigated, especially those against Muslim, Arab and immigrant communities. Amnesty's racial profiling report last year found that such practices increased dramatically after 9/11. We agree with Human Rights First and others that section 804, which expands U.S. jurisdiction to include offenses committed by or against a national of the U.S. provides grounds for Congress to support appointment of a special counsel and an independent commission to comprehensively investigate the torture and ill treatment of detainees in U.S. custody. Over 500 people have been detained without charge at Guantanamo for over 3 years, and tens of thousands more in Iraq, Afghanistan and secret detention centers around the world. The rest of the world knows of this. And, they also know about the more than 100 deaths in U.S. custody, including the, at least, 28 homicides referred to. And the world views all this as an egregious abuse of power and a denial of the most fundamental rights of human exist ence. In Amnesty's 2005 annual report, we noted that U.S. tolerance for torture and ill treatment sends a tragic and counterproductive message to the world that human rights may be sacrificed in the name of security. Right now the U.S. domestic and foreign approaches are both preemptive, secretive, unchecked, subjective, counter to the presumption of innocence, unilateral, unreliable and abusive. Instead of being fair, legal, objective, fact-based, tested, cooperative and most importantly perhaps effective. Congress must reiterate that human rights are an integral part of true security. Policies that facilitate torture at Guantanamo and elsewhere make us less safe and true security cannot be achieved without respect for human rights and the rule of law. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Chairman SENSENBRENNER. Thank you, Mr. Pitts. [The prepared statement of Mr. Pitts follows:] PREPARED STATEMENT OF CHIP PITTS Mr. Chairman, Distinguished Ranking Member, Members of the Committee, on behalf of Amnesty International USA1 thank you for the opportunity to be here today. Amnesty International's 1.8 million members in over 100 countries-including hundreds of thousands in the United States-are committed to exposing human rights violations committed by governments and armed groups around the world. Amnesty International is guided by international human rights and humanitarian law, and the standards set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Geneva Conventions, international instruments the United States championed and helped create half a century ago. The organization was founded to defend the right of individuals incarcerated for the peaceful expression of their views and to oppose the use of torture on any person. Its members have helped free over 40,000 political prisoners, many of whom are survivors of torture, and continues to work for the eradication of torture worldwide and the implementation of relevant international instruments that establish universal human rights standards. 1 Amnesty International is a grassroots organization with 1.8 million members worldwide working to promote and defend human rights. For information, contact Ms. Alex Arriaga or Ms. The USA Patriot Act was adopted in the weeks after the horrific attack on September 11, 2001. Amnesty International vigorously condemned the 9/11 attack as a brutal assault and a crime against humanity, and recognized the duty of every nation to protect its citizens and to seek fair justice. Amnesty International vigorously condemns terrorist attacks, and upholds the international human right to be safe from terrorism. The organization also maintains that the lesson of history is that preserving human rights and the rule of law is the indispensable and preferred route to true security. We are concerned that the USA Patriot Act, combined with other, related post911 legislation, executive orders, and policies, undermines the human rights of Americans and non-citizens in this country, weakens the framework for promoting human rights internationally, and contributes to a climate conducive to human rights violations as well as increased incidents of terror. Amnesty International believes that the USA Patriot Act, as it exists today, is out of step with the legal requirement and critical need to preserve core principles, constitutional freedoms, and adherence to human rights even in times of crisis. The Patriot Act and related measures threaten rights otherwise protected in the U.S. Constitution and international instruments, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention against Torture, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Provisions of the Patriot Act have had a chilling affect on freedom of speech and association, freedom of religion and belief, and privacy. The law jeopardizes due process and fair trial procedures by encouraging a presumption of guilt until proven innocent, instead of the normal presumption of innocence. The Patriot Act is of concern both in itself, and also because it has inspired a significant cascade of similar legislation around the world that weakens the rule of law which is so essential to the protection of human rights, including the right to be defended against terrorist attacks. The overly braod and heavy-handed approach of the Patriot Act is also reflected in other US laws, executive orders, policies and tactics that have led to excesses in the 'war on terror' and have allowed abusive governments around the world to cite the United States as an example to justify their own violations. The policies of the world's superpower disproportionately influence other nations. Governments in countries as diverse as Britain, China, Colombia, Cuba, India, Jordan, and Uzbekistan have stepped up efforts to enact or expand similarly restrictive policies. According to U.S. officials, at least 180 countries-almost every country in the world-have followed suit with legislation of their own since the USA Patriot Act was passed. Amnesty International urges Congress to correct the deficiencies of the Patriot Act by restoring checks and balances, fact-based individualized suspicion, and independent judicial review over government implementation of the Patriot Act. These corrections are necessary both to protect fundamental civil and human rights and to more thoughtfully enhance the law's contribution, if any, to curbing terrorism. Provisions of special concern to Amnesty International include the following: • The USA Patriot Act creates a broad definition of "domestic terrorism" that discourages the right to free expression and association. Section 802 of the law defines "domestic terrorism" as acts committed in the United States "dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws" if the US government determines that they “appear to be intended” to “influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion," or "to intimidate or coerce a civilian population." Already, the Patriot Act has emboldened some school administrators to discourage participation in free speech activities, and has discouraged some peaceful dissenters from protesting. • The USA Patriot Act allows non-citizens to be detained without charge and held indefinitely once charged, if the US Attorney General certifies that there are "reasonable grounds" to believe this person is engaged in conduct that threatens national security. This runs counter to US and international rights to due process and to non-discrimination. • And the USA Patriot Act infringes on the right to privacy and removes many types of judicial review over law enforcement and intelligence activities, which may in turn facilitate the commission of abuses of other human rights. For example, Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act permits the government to scrutinize peoples' reading habits through monitoring of public library and bookstore records and requires bookstores and libraries to disclose, in secrecy and under threat of criminal prosecution, personal records of reading and |