Isakson Denounces Holder's Decision to Investigate CIA Interrogations

ATLANTA - U.S. Senator and Senate candidate Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., today issued the following statement denouncing U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to investigate CIA interrogations. Holder has instructed long-time prosecutor John H. Durham to review nearly a dozen cases of alleged detainee mistreatment at the hands of CIA interrogators and contractors under the Bush administration.

Sep 03, 2009

“I hope the Administration thinks carefully about what they are doing, that they will analyze it and return to the original position the president stated and the original position Eric Holder stated - that they didn’t see a reason to prosecute, criminally, our interrogators.

“I was in the Capitol on September 11, 2001, and I saw our nation more vulnerable than it ever should be. In the past eight years, Republicans and Democrats alike have joined together to see to it that we have the appropriate legislative framework to obtain the human intelligence necessary to defend American citizens, while ensuring that the Constitution is not violated.

“I have been to Guantanamo Bay. I have watched interrogations through a two-way mirror. I understand the Army Field Manual. We cannot take our CIA agents, our interrogators and our personnel who are out there now trying to uncover the information about those who would hurt us, and have them operate in an environment of fear of prosecution by their own government.

“My oath as a United States Senator requires that I will support and defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. And in the case of terror, both exist today. If we aren’t watching the terrorists, if we aren’t listening, if we aren’t following them and we don’t know what they’re doing, we’re not as safe as the United States of America needs to be.”