May 20, 2008

Report Raises Concerns About the Effectiveness of Coercive Interrogation

Wyden: "Nation's interrogation policy must be based on what works in reality."

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) a senior member of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, released the following statement in response to the Department of Justice's Office of the Inspector General's (DOJ IG) report entitled: "Review of the FBI's Involvement in and Observations of Detainee Interrogations in Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan and Iraq." The DOJ IG's report is available at: http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/special/s0805/final.pdf

"Today the DOJ IG shines light on a critical issue that has too often been shrouded in darkness. In response to terrorist attacks, the Bush Administration decided that it was time to start using harsher interrogation techniques without giving enough thought to whether or not those techniques would in fact be the most effective.

"While such techniques may consistently work on television, our nation's interrogation policy must be based on what works in reality. This report makes it clear that experienced FBI interrogators raised concerns that coercive interrogation techniques were not the most effective means of getting information from detainees and I think that FBI Director Mueller deserves praise for taking a stand on this issue

"I hope that my colleagues and the American people will read this report. The DOJ IG's work is professional and unflinching. It should be used to inform a thorough examination of the nation's interrogation policies to ensure that they are both consistent with American laws and values and effective at getting the intelligence needed to protect the American people."

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