WASHINGTON, D.C. - The following statement was released today by Representative Edward J. Markey (D-MA), in response to news reports of a cover-up of U.S. involvement in the kidnapping of German citizen Khaled Masri reported in today’s Washington Post.  Rep. Markey has been an outspoken critic of the practice of sending prisoners out of the U.S. to a network of secret prisons worldwide.  Rep. Markey has passed legislation barring funding from the appropriations bills which fund the Department of Defense, Justice and State from being used to carry-out torture.

“This Administration is shaming our nation by seeking back door mechanisms to skirt our obligations to prevent torture,” said Rep. Markey.  “It is ironic that on the eve of Secretary Rice’s next trip to assure our allies that we are a country that obeys international law, we have a front page story in this country about how little the CIA respects international law. Her counterpart in Britain, Jack Straw, has just written her a series of questions based on previous alleged violations of European law by the CIA.  Now we must add more.  Will she acknowledge and apologize for the CIA’s handling of the Masri case?” 

Representative Markey is organizing a group of lawmakers to accept an amendment to the Defense Appropriations Act that would establish clear guidelines for interrogating prisoners captured in war zones or counter-terrorism operations.  In a letter sent today to House member, Rep. Markey wrote “I urge my colleagues to resist forcefully the notion that the CIA should be exempt from our agreements to respect international agreements or be granted an exception to our national commitment against torture.  The director of the CIA, Porter Goss, and Vice President Cheney are actively lobbying for such exceptions for the CIA.  Carving out a “Goss-Cheney Hole” in the law against cruel and inhumane treatment of prisoners would be a black hole for torture.” 

Rep. Markey is the author of the Outsourcing Torture Prevention Act, a bill which would prohibit the practice of sending prisoners overseas to a network of prisons.  He has also attached amendments to several appropriations bills to bar funds from being spent in contravention of the Convention Against Torture.  For more information about his work to end extraordinary rendition and a copy of the letter from House Members check out: http://www.house.gov/markey/

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 4, 2005

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