Oct. 27, 2007
Is Waterboarding Torture? Mukasey Is Mum
Doubts Raised On Attorney General Nomination Following Tortured Testimony
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Attorney General-designate Michael Mukasey avoided stating whether, as head of the Justice Department, he would rule that waterboarding is an illegal form of interrogation. "If waterboarding is torture, torture is not constitutional," he said. (AP Photos/Susan Walsh)
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A growing number of Senate Democrats who had previously praised attorney general nominee Michael B. Mukasey are now focusing on his refusal to answer a question about torture as a pivotal issue for his confirmation.
Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., D-Del., a member of the Judiciary Committee, yesterday joined other key Democrats in saying his vote will depend on whether Mukasey declares that a disputed CIA interrogation technique known as "waterboarding" qualifies as illegal torture under U.S. laws.
While no lawmaker has predicted Mukasey's defeat, several have suggested that his confirmation is less assured than it initially seemed.
Mukasey aroused lawmakers' concerns when he repeatedly declined to answer questions about waterboarding during the second day of his confirmation hearings. He said he was not sufficiently familiar with the practice to render an opinion.
"My support for Judge Mukasey's nomination depends in part on him stating clearly that waterboarding constitutes torture and that the president is bound by the law," Biden said in a statement.
His comments followed similar remarks on Thursday by Sens. Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., the majority whip, and Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., the Judiciary chairman. Leahy has postponed a vote on Mukasey's nomination until he answers questions on waterboarding, surveillance and other issues. Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid, D-Nev., also told reporters the issue is important to his vote.
"For those of us who care about torture, his answer on waterboarding is very important," Durbin said in an interview yesterday. "I was looking for something different from Judge Mukasey, but so far his answers have been disappointing."
Legislative aides said other Democratic members of the panel are waiting for Mukasey's answers before deciding whether to support him.
The committee's ranking Republican, Sen. Arlen Specter, Pa., has also written a letter to Mukasey demanding answers about waterboarding and other issues. Other Republicans have said that because Mukasey had no connection to or knowledge of waterboarding, he should not have to answer questions about it.
The skepticism marks a shift from 10 days ago, when Reid, Leahy and other top Democrats praised Mukasey's qualifications and predicted his easy confirmation by the Senate.
The new pressure on the torture issue poses a political and legal challenge for the Bush administration, which officials have said authorized the use of waterboarding on at least three detainees kept in secret detention by the CIA after the Justice Department said it was legal. In appointing Mukasey, who had a reputation as a pragmatic outsider, administration officials sought to avoid a new fight over the controversial policies that tarred former attorney general Alberto R. Gonzales.
So far his answers have been disappointing.
Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill.A vote on Mukasey's nomination by the Judiciary Committee is unlikely for at least two weeks, legislative aides said yesterday. That means the nomination may come before the full Senate shortly before Thanksgiving.
Mukasey, a former federal prosecutor who served 18 years as a federal judge in New York, enjoyed the early and highly public support of Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y. Schumer said this month that Mukasey was likely to be confirmed.
But Schumer spokesman Brian Fallon said yesterday that the waterboarding issue "raises serious concerns for the senator. ... He is waiting for Judge Mukasey's answers before passing any judgment."
The waterboarding tactic generally involves strapping the prisoner to a board, covering his face or mouth with a cloth, and pouring water over his face to create the sensation of drowning, according to human rights groups. The practice dates to at least the Spanish Inquisition, and has been prosecuted as torture in U.S. military courts since the Spanish-American War.
In testimony before the Judiciary panel on Oct. 18, Mukasey demurred when asked whether waterboarding constitutes torture and is therefore illegal. "I don't know what's involved in the technique," he said. "If waterboarding is torture, torture is not constitutional."
The committee's 10 Democrats responded on Tuesday with a letter to Mukasey demanding that he answer the question directly and noting that the practice is well enough known that the State Department routinely condemns its use in other countries. That letter, spearheaded by Durbin, stopped short of threatening opposition to Mukasey's nomination.
Bradford A. Berenson, a lawyer who worked in the White House counsel's office and who supports the nomination, said that "it's just unreasonable to expect him to express a firm view [on waterboarding] one way or the other unless he's more versed in the facts. It's not as if he went in there and told them it wasn't torture. He just wanted to be better informed."
Mukasey also testified that while the president could not authorize conduct that would violate torture laws, there may be occasions when the president's powers as commander in chief could trump a federal law requiring that a special court approve intelligence-related wiretaps.
In a letter to Leahy released by the senator yesterday, Mukasey reiterated that he believes the Constitution and U.S. statutes are explicit in forbidding torture but are less clear on the boundaries of surveillance. "The weight of authority indicates that warrantless surveillance to collect foreign intelligence is not unconstitutional so long as it is otherwise reasonable," Mukasey wrote.
© 2007 The Washington Post Company





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See all 185 CommentsIt has also gained us verifiable information that has saved tens of thousands of US lives.
If MoveOn.Org Party scum like Dic-less Durbin, Leahy, or Henry Waxboy don''t like it, tough. It''s time that they stopped wasting tax dollars on their salaries, were given a carbine, and told to fight Al Qaeda. If they refused, cowards as they are, fine - they can share a cell with Mukmud Abdulhole in Gitmo for all I care.
And if the Nazi bozos don''t like it, well, that one million Americans also applies to them too - even if they don''t want to be Americans. If they too are too f*cked up in their hate of Bush and this country, they too have options - Tehran or Gitmo or Gaza. No difference, the Hitlerjugend of the Left won''t be missed.
hmmmm, must be "former" usmcsgt or one of the other MoveOn.Org paid trolls and America-haters full of beans and champipple raving like the looneys they are - probably never served a day in their lives.
If they did, and truly opposed this war, they''d have better ways to convey it than behaving like a bunch of John Kerrys, or they''d come up with ways to victory - instead of their willingness to submit to the rules of the enemy.
Thank goodness this guy wasn''t on Guadalcanal in ''42 -he''d be waving the white flag in Tojo''s face, and dissing those like Barney Ross, Manila John, John Bauer, the Sullivan Brothers and others who acted like Marines, not MoveOn.Org stooges and clowns.
A Loser.
nothing but a mere Nazi. His kind either goosestepped right alongside the SS or gleefully collaborated with them. No other way, this piece of manure would never be in any kind of Anti-Fascist resistance.
As for waterboarding, kindly come to my part of America and take a dose yourself - or move in with your fellow roaches and Hitler lovers in Tehran, bozo.
These losers and Hitlerjugend insist that the President and Mukasey (who I believe is Arab-American himself) should be waterboarded. I think that these Neo-Nazis who obviously didn''t mind 3000 Americans butchered on 9/11 should be hanged. That is what you do to traitors. Shooting them shows respect, and is much too humane to Nazi scum who condone the killing of babies and women and who applaud the Islamofascists.
Start screaming hyenas, I really don''t give a hoot for what cowards and traitors think.
He has never put in one day of military service for this nation. In fact, he''s never served this nation, period (usmc1968 I CAN''T HEAR YOU - to paraphase a Marine actor who was probably more of the real thing than you''d ever be). If guys like usmc1968 aka formerusmcsgt or mcbozo aka mcvet, mcloser, loser71 or whatever his new name is today did actually serve, their venom should be directed at the MoveOn Party cowards like Reid, the Clintons, Dean, Pelosi and others who never did.
Unless they like goosestepping to their beloved Adolf''s speeches - just like these MoveOn cowards do.
What''s not mentioned is the water can come at any time; can range in temperature from scalding to freezing and can be applied with enough quantity and force that a person can not get air. Do that continuously for 3 or 4 minutes and you can suffocate your prisoner.
The not-too-liberal John McCain claimed waterboarding IS torture and was quoted as saying it''s no different than putting a pistol to someone''s head and firing a blank.
Mr. Mukasey needs to think long and hard about this question and consider the impact a "no, it''s not" would have. The man already has two glaring strikes against him. One: Mr. Bush thinks highly enough of Mukasey''s political leanings to have nominated him in the first place and Two: his accepting it.
YOU have two glaring strikes against you.
One, you obviously don''t care about what happened to Americans on 9/11. You seem to think that those on Gitmo are nice innocent kids and old men who did nothing to get there.
I guess you''d rather America face 1000 Bataan Death Marches for one Hiroshima.
Two, you''re a typical MoveOn.Org Party stooge.
Care to know what the third strike is, bozo?
I know who their choice for Attorney General would be - the bumbling, pro-Nazi, I''ve never met a torturer or babykilling dictator I didn''t like toilet bowl scum by the name of Ramsey Clark.
By the way he was Attorney General under Johnson - who couldn''t stand his Stalinist ways and booted him. Even Jimmy Carter, coward and Klan acolyte that he is, to his dismay learned that Clark would soon take the pay of the Ayatollahs than defend Americans.
But hey, he''d let all of the Gitmo roaches go so they could inflict more 9/11s on America - no problems for the MoveOn.Org and Code Pink hyena brigades.
Is waterboarding torture?"
How can you be a Jew AND a Hitler lover? I never get that.
Waterboarding is torture. I don''t see why this is such a hard question for a judge to answer. Duh, I don''t know what that is..... and we are still considering him for Attorney General. The real question for the judge is what are you going to do about agencies and people who practice this technique and other forms of torture?
A Loser.
Posted by SendReidPelo at 03:14 PM : Oct 27, 2007
Hey Nimrod - the Sullivan Brothers were sailors and stay away from the caffine - brother are you a gufus !
You are ignorant bobgee. I don''t say that in anger. I say it because you don''t have any idea of what fascism really is, otherwise you wouldn''t make such a foolish bias statement.
Do yourself a favor - look it up on wikipedia - then let us know why I''m right. That way you won''t look so dumb to others.
It''s ok to hate Republicans, but by condemming them all, based on your limited exposure is nothing more than showing your prejudice. Another endearing quality to those that might read your post.
If you are here to Bush Bash, or hate - swing away. You only strengthen your opposition each time you do it.
Sour grapes, or not, this is the Bush who confessed-- visibly shaken by the 2006 election-- "The people have spoken."
Current Bush provocations continue in the Gonzales fashion of "I cannot remember" or "I do not know"-- not to mention running a candidate past the Senate who pretends not to understand what waterboarding is all about.
We can imagine Mukasey sending a "Thank You" note to Sen. Biden, after his confirmation,
"Thanks for your vote, Joe. I consider it an honor to have assisted the Senate in its recent deliberation on my qualifications.
By the way, Joe, waterboarding is legal."
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Perhaps we should waterboard Mukasey himself to provide him with a better, more exact basis for his appraisal of the technique.
Neither works off the pain involved, but the phsychological value.
Neither works off the pain involved, but the phsychological value.
isn''''t it surfing we are Americans we would Never go against the Geneva Convention after all our president was in the service during the Viet Nam War was he????
Posted by jerryomara at 06:12 PM : Oct 27, 2007
How many people have drowned from water boarding?
There is no need to wait for him to consider the matter further.
Is it legal to take some guys head and put it under water? Sounds like assault to me. Not that I feel very sorry when they do it to people that are admitted al qaeda members.
Neither works off the pain involved, but the phsychological value.
Posted by kesac4650 at 06:50 PM : Oct 27, 2007
You have got to be borderline mentally retarded. The technique would not be used if it were not torture. You think a suspect''s going to crack because a swat on the butt? You are truly the stuff republicans are made of, pure ignorance and stupidity.
Posted by kjunrj at 09:25 PM : Oct 27, 2007
How many people have drowned from waterboarding, post a lifeguard that should help?
Is it legal to take some guys head and put it under water? Sounds like assault to me. Not that I feel very sorry when they do it to people that are admitted al qaeda members.
Posted by fibonacci_ at 08:54 PM : Oct 27, 2007
So long as you don''t drown him, how many have drowned from waterboarding. It''s all about the 00 and 04 elections still, get over it.
Posted by thefarrier at 09:30 PM : Oct 27, 2007
Ron Paul is a George McGovern with a medical degree.
Posted by jowand at 09:53 PM : Oct 27, 2007
And you are a jacka$$ without a brain. At least Ron Paul is honest, and no, I do not want him to be my president, but I assure you, it is for reasons you could not possibly comprehend.
Posted by fibonacci_ at 08:54 PM : Oct 27, 2007
After they were through with you,you would admit to being an al qaeda member too. That''s why its torture, and that''s why its bad intelligence gathering. People will say whateve to stop the torture. Fro example, they got Galileo during the Spanish Inquisition to deny his own theory that the earth goes around the sun. So the "intelligence gatherers" of that age got the very useful informatino that the earth is fixed in space, and is the center of the universe. Our little inquisition got the useful intelligence that Iraq was loaded with WMD.
This attorney general candidate is extremely stupid not to understand the futility and uselessness of torture. Maybe when every idiot and moron in America has served in the government, we will finally get someone with basic ability to govern our nation.
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