DIRECTING THE ATTORNEY GENERAL TO TRANSMIT TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES DOCUMENTS IN THE POSSESSION OF THE ATTOR- The Committee on the Judiciary, to whom was referred the reso- lution (H. Res. 700) directing the Attorney General to transmit to the House of Representatives documents in the possession of the Attorney General relating to the treatment of prisoners and detain- ees in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay, having considered New Budget Authority and Tax Expenditures Performance Goals and Objectives Constitutional Authority Statement 14 Strike all after the resolving clause and insert the following: Resolved, That the Attorney General is directed to transmit to the House of Representatives not later than 14 days after the date of the adoption of this resolution all documents in the possession of the Attorney General, except those documents in the Attorney General's possession that have been found by a court to be protected by Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6(e) in a proceeding at which the Attorney General or the Department of Justice is a party, relating to the treatment of prisoners or detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan, or Guantanamo Bay and any requisite instructions for handling such documents, including (1) every report, memorandum, or complaint from the International Committee of the Red Cross relating to the treatment of detainees or prisoners and any documents that reference such memorandum, report, or complaint by the Attorney General or by any agency under the Attorney General; (2) every report, memorandum, or complaint from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Iraqi Human Rights Association, Afghan Human Rights Commission, Physicians for Human Rights, or Human Rights First relating to the treatment of detainees or prisoners and any documents that reference such memorandum, report, or complaint by the Attorney General or by any agency under the Attorney General; (3) every document relating to interrogation techniques; (4) every internal report of a law enforcement, military, or intelligence agency or organization concerning interrogation or detention operations; (5) every internal report of a law enforcement, military, or intelligence agency in response to allegations that the treatment of prisoners or detainees violated or continues to violate international or American law; (6) every document and memorandum regarding the applicability of the Geneva Conventions, the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the International Covenant on Political and Civil Rights, sections 2340-2340A of title 18, United States Code, the War Crimes Act of 1996, and the Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States to the treatment of prisoners or detainees; (7) every document and memorandum relating to command relationships between military police units and military intelligence units; (8) every document and memorandum directing personnel to abstain from using specific interrogation techniques or to withdraw themselves from interrogations being conducted by other departments; (9) any Presidential directive or other writing authorizing the use of interrogation tactics or claiming the constitutional authority to do so; (10) any documentation of training received by the 800th Military Police Brigade and the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade regarding the treatment of prisoners or detainees; (11) any documentation of special access programs as they were applied to prisoners or detainees; (12) all records of meetings regarding the treatment of prisoners or detainees at which one or more officials of the Department of Justice were present and the presence of those officials is apparent from the face of the record; (13) every document and memorandum concerning the practice of keeping prisoners or detainees off the official roster; (14) a list of every ongoing and completed investigation into the treatment of prisoners or detainees, and any written reports produced by any such investigation; (15) every document relating to civilian contract employees and their role in prisons; (16) all written statements of prisoners or detainees, military personnel, civilian employees of the Federal Government, or civilian contractors regarding the treatment of prisonero on datain. ch prisoner or detainee that reflect a nnel or by civilian contractors; contracts (including subcontracts and nents, for interrogation or translation LL KF 27 .J8 2004d Copy 1 work by CACI International, Titan Corporation, and any other entity that may have performed such work; (19) any documents or testimony presented to or prepared by the Detainee Assessment Branch at Abu Ghraib prison at any time after September 1, 2003 regarding the treatment of Iraqi prisoners or detainees by members of the Armed Forces or by civilian contractors working in Iraq employed on behalf of the Department of Defense; (20) any complaint forms filled out and submitted at any time after March 1, 2003 by a member of the Armed Services or by a civilian contractor employed on behalf of the Department of Defense or Central Intelligence Agency regarding the treatment of detainees or prisoners; (21) any reports or documents reflecting the death or injury of prisoners or detainees; and (22) all documentation, including video evidence, of any sexual assault of any prisoner or detainee who is a minor. PURPOSE AND SUMMARY H. Res. 700, introduced by Representative John Conyers, Jr. on June 25, 2004, directs the Attorney General to transmit to the House of Representatives, not later than 14 days after the date of adoption of this resolution, all physical and electronic records and documents in his possession relating to the treatment of prisoners and detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay. BACKGROUND AND NEED FOR THE LEGISLATION H. Res. 700 is a resolution of inquiry. Clause 7 of Rule XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives provides that if the Committee does not act on the resolution within 14 legislative days, a privileged motion to discharge the Committee is in order on the floor. In calculating the days available for Committee consideration, the day of introduction and the day of discharge are not counted.1 On introduction, H. Res. 700 was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. The Committee ordered it reported adversely with an amendment on July 21, 2004. Mr. Conyers also introduced two other resolutions of inquiry requesting identical information from other officials in the Administration. On June 23, he introduced H. Res. 689 that requested similar information from the President, the Attorney General, and the Secretaries of Defense and State. H. Res. 689 was referred to the Committee on Armed Services, which subsequently reported H. Res. 689 adversely on July 15, 2004 by a vote of 31 yeas to 23 noes with one voting present.2 On June 25, 2004, he introduced H. Res. 699 that again requested the same information from the Secretary of State. That resolution was referred to the Committee on International Relations and was adversely reported on July 15, 2004 by a vote of 23– 19.3 Under the rules and precedents of the House, a resolution of inquiry allows the House to request information from the President of the United States or to direct the head of one of the executive departments to provide such information. According to Deschler's Precedents, it is a "simple resolution making a direct request or demand of the President or the head of an executive department to 1 William Holmes Brown, House Practice: A Guide to the Rules, Precedents, and Procedures of the House, chp. 49 §4 (2003). 2 H.Rep. No. 108-632 (2004). furnish the House of Representatives with specific factual information in the possession of the executive branch."4 If a Committee does not timely report the motion of inquiry, it may be discharged from a Committee under a privileged motion. If a Committee acts in a timely manner, it may report favorably or adversely. A Committee that adversely reports a resolution of inquiry does not necessarily oppose the resolution under consideration. In the past, resolutions of inquiry have frequently been reported adversely for various reasons, two of which are that an Administration has substantially complied with the request or that there is an ongoing competing investigation. There is also past precedent for a resolution of inquiry to be adversely reported because the nature of the information reported was highly sensitive.5 H. Res. 700 would direct the Attorney General to transmit to the House of Representatives documents related to ongoing criminal investigations and documents that are of a highly sensitive nature. Furthermore, the Congress has received and continues to receive information responsive to the legislative purposes sought by the resolution. A. The War on Terrorism 1) The September 11, 2001 Attacks On the morning of September 11, 2001, the deadliest international terrorist attack against the United States in history occurred. Using four hijacked airliners, 19 al-Qaeda terrorists attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, causing unprecedented structural damage and civilian casualties. The two 110story towers of the World Trade Center collapsed, and part of the Pentagon was destroyed. The terrorists initiated the attack in New York City. At 8:45 a.m., American Airlines Flight 11 out of Boston with 81 passengers and 11 crew members, dove full-speed into the north tower of the World Trade Center. Only minutes later, at 9:03 a.m., a second airliner, United Airlines Flight 175 from Boston with 56 passengers and 9 crew members, crashed into the south tower and exploded. Both towers billowed smoke into the sky prior to collapsing and retreating below the New York skyline. The New York attack took the lives of 2,801 innocent Americans. The attack then turned to the Nation's capital. At 9:43 a.m., American Airlines Flight 77 with 58 passengers and 6 crew members, struck the Pentagon. The portion of the Pentagon hit was consumed by fire and collapsed, taking the lives of 125 innocent Americans. The terrorists' plans were not yet complete. A fourth airliner, United Airlines Flight 93, believed to be bound for the Capitol or White House, crashed into a field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. The passengers and crew, numbered at 45, were able to redirect the plane to the rural area and undoubtedly saved hundreds or thousands of lives in the process. The Nation watched as the number of confirmed dead grew. The Americans killed in the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks numbered 3,030 and over 2,000 were injured. In New York City, 47 Deschler's Precedents of the House of Representatives, ch. 24, §8. 5 H.Rep. No. 92–1331 (1972). 343 firefighters and 75 police died attempting to save the people trapped in the towers. The hijacked planes carried 265 passengers and crew who lost their lives. The dead were memorialized through countless tributes. The effects and aftermath of the 9/11 attacks had an immediate and overwhelming impact on the citizenry of the United States. Support for retaliatory operations against the perpetrators of the attacks 9/11 was strong and bipartisan. 2) Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) The country rallied around the flag and prepared for the War on Terror that began in Afghanistan on October 7, 2001. After the 9/ 11 attacks, the United States entered into a war against global terrorism under the name "Operation Enduring Freedom." The United States gathered evidence that the attacks were directed by "a collection of loosely affiliated terrorist organizations known as alQaeda” 6 under the leadership of Osama bin Laden, who was being harbored by the Taliban in Afghanistan. In President George W. Bush's Address to the Joint Session of Congress on September 20, 2001, he demanded the Taliban, "[d]eliver to United States authorities all the leaders of al-Qaeda who hide in your land; release all foreign nationals. . . unjustly imprisoned, and protect foreign journalists, diplomats and aid workers in your country; close immediately and permanently every terrorist training camp in Afghanistan and hand over every terrorist, and every person in their support structure, to appropriate authorities; and give the United States full access to terrorist training camps, so we can make sure they are no longer operating."7 When these demands were not met, the U.S. commenced military operations on October 7, 2001, to "disrupt the use of Afghanistan as a terrorist base of operations, and to attack the military capability of the Taliban regime," as stated in President Bush's October 7 address to the country. In addition to the objectives laid out by President Bush in his address to the Joint Session of Congress on September 20, other objectives, as mentioned in Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's Department of Defense News Briefing, "were to make clear to Taliban leaders that the harboring of terrorists is unacceptable, to acquire intelligence on al-Qaeda and Taliban resources, to develop relations with groups opposed to the Taliban, to prevent the use of Afghanistan as a safe haven for terrorists, and to destroy the Taliban military allowing opposition forces to succeed in their struggle. Finally, military force would help facilitate the delivering of humanitarian supplies to the Afghan people."8 The military operations began with air strikes from B-1, B–2, and B-52 bombers and F-14 and F/A-18 fighters in addition to Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from U.S. and British vessels.9 By October 20, virtually all Taliban air defenses had been destroyed. The provincial capital of Mazar-e-Sharif fell twenty days later with 6 President Bush's Sept 20th Address to a Joint Session of Congress, 147 Cong. Rec. H5859 (daily ed. September 20, 2001). 7 Id. |