I 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3728 
To make certain improvements in the laws applicable to the detention of 
individuals at United States detainment facilities, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
OCTOBER 6, 2009 
Mr. HASTINGS of Florida introduced the following bill; which was referred to 
the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committees on 
Armed Services and Select Intelligence (Permanent Select), for a period 
to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consider-
ation of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee 
concerned 
A BILL 
To make certain improvements in the laws applicable to 
the detention of individuals at United States detainment 
facilities, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 
‘‘Detainment Reform Act of 2009’’. 
(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents is 
as follows: 
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 
VerDate Nov 24 2008 
05:50 Oct 07, 2009
Jkt 089200
PO 00000
Frm 00001
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6211
E:\BILLS\H3728.IH
H3728
wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with BILLS
TITLE I—POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT AND 
FINDINGS 
Sec. 101. Statement of policy. 
Sec. 102. Findings. 
Sec. 103. Definitions. 
TITLE II—DETENTION CRITERIA; DEFINITION OF DETAINEE 
Sec. 201. Findings. 
Sec. 202. Detention criteria and procedures. 
Sec. 203. Detention proceedings. 
TITLE III—TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY OF AMERICAN 
DETENTION FACILITIES 
Sec. 301. Notification and access of International Committee of the Red Cross 
with respect to detainees at American detention facilities. 
Sec. 302. Report by the Department of Defense. 
TITLE IV—HABEAS-EXCEPTION TREATMENT OF DETAINEES 
Sec. 401. Findings. 
Sec. 402. Habeas-exception treatment of detainees. 
Sec. 403. Sense of Congress. 
Sec. 404. Detention. 
Sec. 405. Reporting. 
Sec. 406. Rules of construction. 
Sec. 407. Sunset. 
TITLE 
I—POLICY 
OF 
THE 
UNITED 
STATES 
GOVERN-
MENT AND FINDINGS 
SEC. 101. STATEMENT OF POLICY. 
It shall be the policy of the United States to— 
(1) vigorously implement a sustained national 
strategy to combat the short- and long-term threat 
to national security posed by terrorism and terrorist 
organizations; 
(2) arrest, detain, and prosecute to the full ex-
tent of the law individuals who are involved in or are 
providing material support for terrorist activities, 
and use all appropriate means to obtain from indi-
VerDate Nov 24 2008 
05:50 Oct 07, 2009
Jkt 089200
PO 00000
Frm 00002
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H3728.IH
H3728
wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with BILLS
viduals lawfully in United States custody timely, ac-
curate, and actionable intelligence to protect the na-
tional security interests of the United States; 
(3) provide personnel working in support of the 
Federal Government and involved in the arrest, de-
tention, interrogation, and prosecution of terrorist 
suspects with training to uphold principles set forth 
in the Constitution, Federal law, international 
human rights law, and the law of armed conflict; 
(4) prohibit personnel from applying forms of 
torture, cruel and inhuman or degrading treatment 
or punishment during arrest, detention, interroga-
tion, and prosecution of terrorist suspects; 
(5) abide by the rule of law and due process 
with accountability and transparency including 
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) 
access to detainees being held in American detention 
facilities; 
(6) research and develop the most effective 
practices for arrest, detention, interrogation, and 
prosecution of terrorist suspects which are consistent 
with the United States strategic goals of weakening 
terrorist organizations and their recruitment capa-
bilities and strengthening the international leader-
ship of the United States by cooperating with, and 
VerDate Nov 24 2008 
05:50 Oct 07, 2009
Jkt 089200
PO 00000
Frm 00003
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H3728.IH
H3728
wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with BILLS
incorporating insight from the experiences of, allied 
nations in combating terrorism and terrorist organi-
zations, in addition to the United States national ex-
perience; and 
(7) regularly monitor policies related to the ar-
rest, detention, interrogation, and prosecution of ter-
rorist suspects to ensure that the policy objectives in 
paragraphs (1) through (6) are being met. 
SEC. 102. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
(1) Since 2002, terrorists have been captured 
by the United States and their allies and detained 
in facilities at United States Naval Station, Guanta-
namo Bay (hereinafter in this Act referred to as 
‘‘GTMO’’), Cuba. 
(2) The detainee complex at GTMO can safely 
hold individuals who pose a high security risk to the 
United States. GTMO provides the maximum secu-
rity required to prevent escape and multiple levels of 
confinement opportunities based on compliance of 
the detainee. 
(3) Intelligence information obtained from ques-
tioning detainees currently held at GTMO in-
cludes— 
VerDate Nov 24 2008 
05:50 Oct 07, 2009
Jkt 089200
PO 00000
Frm 00004
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H3728.IH
H3728
wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with BILLS
(A) the organizational structure of Al 
Qaeda and other terrorist groups; 
(B) the extent of the presence of terrorist 
networks in Europe, the United States, the 
Middle East, and possibly other areas; 
(C) Al Qaeda’s pursuit of weapons of mass 
destruction; 
(D) methods of recruitment and locations 
of recruitment centers; 
(E) terrorist skill sets, including general 
and specialized operative training; and 
(F) how legitimate financial activities are 
used to hide terrorist operations. 
(4) Since 2002, the United States has trans-
ferred the substantial majority of detainees at 
GTMO to other countries including Albania, Algeria, 
Bermuda, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chad, Denmark, 
Egypt, France, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Jordan, Kuwait, 
Kazakhstan, Libya, Maldives, Mauritania, Morocco, 
Pakistan, Portugal, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, 
Somaliland, Spain, Sweden, Sudan, Tajikistan, Tu-
nisia, Turkey, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, the 
United Kingdom, and Yemen. 
(5) There are a substantial number of detainees 
from over 30 countries remaining at GTMO. 
VerDate Nov 24 2008 
05:50 Oct 07, 2009
Jkt 089200
PO 00000
Frm 00005
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H3728.IH
H3728
wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with BILLS
(6) These detainees allegedly include terrorist 
trainers, terrorist financiers, bombmakers, Osama 
bin Laden’s bodyguards, recruiters, and facilitators. 
Detainees remaining at GTMO fall into three cat-
egories: 
(A) Detainees who have been placed in 
preventative detention to stop them from re-
turning to the battlefield. 
(B) Detainees who have violated American 
criminal laws and, besides being subject to pre-
ventative detention, have been brought or are 
expected to be brought before a military or 
other tribunal to face criminal charges, includ-
ing for alleged violations of the laws of war. 
(C) Detainees who have been cleared for 
transfer or release to a foreign country, either 
because— 
(i) they are not believed to have been 
engaged in hostilities, or 
(ii) although they were found to have 
been enemy belligerents, they are no longer 
considered a threat to United States secu-
rity. 
Such detainees continue to be held at GTMO 
until their transfer can be effectuated. 
VerDate Nov 24 2008 
05:50 Oct 07, 2009
Jkt 089200
PO 00000
Frm 00006
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H3728.IH
H3728
wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with BILLS
(7) The United States is still engaged in armed 
conflict with terrorist organizations, and will likely 
continue to capture terrorists or other hostile actors 
who will need to be detained. 
(8) If the detention facility at GTMO is closed, 
some United States domestic or overseas detention 
facilities will house the detainees while they await 
disposition. 
(9) In addition to the facilities at GTMO, the 
American military currently detains approximately 
600 individuals at the military detention facility at 
Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. 
(10) Though the number of detainees at GTMO 
is currently decreasing, the number of detainees at 
Bagram is increasing. 
(11) Detainees at Bagram currently do not 
have access to lawyers, have no right to hear the al-
legations against them, and only receive rudimentary 
reviews of their status as ‘‘enemy combatants’’. 
Many detainees there have been held for years with-
out charge or access to legal representation. 
(12) Recent guidelines proposed by the Depart-
ment of Defense assign each detainee a United 
States military official advocate on the detainee’s be-
half. These officials, however, are not attorneys and 
VerDate Nov 24 2008 
05:50 Oct 07, 2009
Jkt 089200
PO 00000
Frm 00007
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H3728.IH
H3728
wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with BILLS
the proposed proceedings do not adequately remedy 
detention procedure problems nor do they ensure 
transparency and accountability in the review proc-
ess. 
(13) At least one United States District Court, 
in Maqaleh v. Gates, has ruled that some detainees 
at Bagram are entitled to some form of Constitu-
tional protection. 
SEC. 103. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act— 
(1) the terms ‘‘agent of a foreign power’’, ‘‘for-
eign power’’, and ‘‘United States person’’ have the 
meanings given such terms in section 101 of the 
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 
U.S.C. 1801); 
(2) the term ‘‘covered individual’’ means an in-
dividual who is not a United States person; 
(3) the term ‘‘District Court’’ means the United 
States District Court for the District of Columbia; 
and 
(4) the term ‘‘Geneva Conventions’’ means— 
(A) the Convention for the Amelioration of 
the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in 
Armed Forces in the Field, done at Geneva, 
August 12, 1949 (6 UST 3217); 
VerDate Nov 24 2008 
05:50 Oct 07, 2009
Jkt 089200
PO 00000
Frm 00008
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H3728.IH
H3728
wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with BILLS
(B) the Convention for the Amelioration of 
the Condition of the Wounded, Sick, and Ship-
wrecked Members of the Armed Forces at Sea, 
done at Geneva, August 12, 1949 (6 UST 
3217); 
(C) the Convention Relative to the Treat-
ment of Prisoners of War, done at Geneva, Au-
gust 12, 1949 (6 UST 3316); and 
(D) the Convention Relative to the Protec-
tion of Civilian Persons in Time of War, done 
at Geneva, August 12, 1949 (6 UST 3516). 
TITLE II—DETENTION CRITERIA; 
DEFINITION OF DETAINEE 
SEC. 201. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
(1) The Supreme Court has stated that, at a 
minimum, Common Article 3 applies to the conflict 
with Al Qaeda and its affiliates. 
(2) The United Nations Commission on Human 
Rights has said ‘‘the indefinite detention of pris-
oners of war and civilian internees for purposes of 
continued interrogation is inconsistent with the pro-
visions of the Geneva Conventions’’. 
VerDate Nov 24 2008 
05:50 Oct 07, 2009
Jkt 089200
PO 00000
Frm 00009
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H3728.IH
H3728
wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with BILLS