These guys are begging to be voted out of office......
Senators pay heed to prisoner (Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Alert) abuse case
Associated Press ^ | March 16, 2007 | Anne Flaherty
news.yahoo.com
Two senators who watched Khalid Sheikh Mohammed confess to planning the Sept. 11 attacks and other plots said Friday that his allegations of mistreatment by U.S. captors should be taken seriously and investigated. "To do otherwise would reflect poorly on our nation," Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said in a joint statement.
At a closed military hearing last Saturday at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. naval prison in Cuba, Mohammed claimed responsibility for plotting more than 30 attacks and personally beheading American journalist Daniel Pearl.
He also gave military officials a written statement alleging mistreatment before arriving at Guantanamo Bay. He had previously been held by the CIA at secret facilities.
Levin and Graham acknowledged Friday that they watched the proceedings on a closed circuit television in an adjoining room. The public and press were barred from the session, and the senators' attendance had not been announced.
A transcript of Mohammed's hearing, released Wednesday by the Pentagon, refers to a claim he made that he was tortured by the CIA, though he said he was not under duress at Guantanamo when he confessed to his role in the attacks. The CIA has said its interrogation practices are legal, and it does not use torture.
"Allegations of prisoner mistreatment must be taken seriously and properly investigated," the senators' statement said.
[Snip]
The two senators have battled the Bush administration in recent years on the treatment of the nation's most dangerous terrorism suspects. In 2005, the Bush administration resisted legislation backed by Levin and Graham that banned cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, contending that the president needed flexibility when it came to terrorist interrogations.
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