Leahy Presses For Senate Hearings
On Prisoner Abuses In Iraq

[WASHINGTON (Tuesday, May 4) – Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has asked the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee to convene a hearing on the allegations of physical and sexual abuse of Iraqi prisoners at the hands of U.S. military personnel and private contractors working for the government. The ranking Democratic member of the Judiciary Committee, Leahy sent a letter to Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the panel’s chairman, on Monday formally requesting the committee look into the allegations that Iraqi prisoners were mistreated at Abu Ghraib.  Leahy sent a similar letter Tuesday to Senators John Warner (R-Va.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, and Carl Levin (D-Mich.), the ranking Democratic member of that panel, urging that committee to look into the matter (click here for text of the Warner/Levin letter). The text of Leahy’s letter to Hatch follows (click here for a PDF).]

_________________________

May 3, 2004

The Honorable Orrin G. Hatch

Chairman

Committee on the Judiciary

224 Dirksen Senate Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Orrin,

I know all of us were appalled this weekend at the reports of abuse of Iraqi prisoners.   At a critical time, these reports gravely undercut the purpose and credibility of the American presence in Iraq.  They threaten to hinder our nation’s already weakened standing in the world especially in predominately Muslim countries, and they undermine our ability to combat international terrorism around the globe.  They also risk emboldening those who capture or kidnap Americans around the world to accord our soldiers and civilians barbaric treatment.

I request that you convene a hearing before the Judiciary Committee into these matters.  Given our Committee’s jurisdiction over criminal law matters, civil liberties, claims against the United States and our expertise over prison matters, I expect you will find ample jurisdictional grounds for proceeding.  General Myers said yesterday, for example, that the civilian contract employees allegedly involved would be subject to U.S. criminal law.

In his article in The New Yorker, Seymour Hersh writes of a February report by Major General Antonio M. Taguba.  Mr. Hersh notes:  “The picture he draws of Abu Ghraib is one in which Army regulations and the Geneva conventions were routinely violated, and in which much of the day-to-day management of the prisoners was abdicated to Army military-intelligence units and civilian contract employees.”

I will join you in a request to the Army for a copy of General Taguba’s report.  I suggest that you consider inviting a representative of the Department of Justice to report on their activities in connection with these matters, a representative of the Department of Defense, a representative of the civilian contractor, as well as Mr. Hersh, Human Rights Watch or the International Committee of the Red Cross to report on the complaints that have been made and the conditions in which prisoners are being held.

Sincerely,

PATRICK LEAHY

Ranking Democratic Member

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