Dems: Mukasey Ducking Waterboarding Issue

Attorney General Refuses To Say Whether Harsh Interrogation Tactic Is Torture Or Legal

(CBS/AP)  Senate Democrats accused Attorney General Michael Mukasey of ducking questions Wednesday on whether waterboarding is torture despite his promise last year to study whether it is illegal.

The issue briefly stalled Mukasey's confirmation last fall until he assured Senate Democrats he would review the legality of the harsh interrogation tactic and report back.

Waterboarding involves strapping a person down and pouring water over his cloth-covered face to create the sensation of drowning.

Ultimately, however, Mukasey said Wednesday he would not rule on whether waterboarding is a form of illegal torture because it is not part of the current interrogation methods used by the CIA on terror suspects. Despite having called waterboarding personally repugnant, Mukasey's non-answer angered Democrats who said the attorney general should be able to address a legal question.

"I think failure to say something probably puts some of our people in more danger than not," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the Judiciary Committee's chairman.

"It's like you're opposed to stealing but not quite sure that bank robbery would qualify," retorted Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass.

Mukasey, in his trademark monotone, did not appear rattled. He said he has concluded that current methods used by the CIA to interrogate terror suspects are lawful and that the spy agency is not using waterboarding on its prisoners.

Beyond that, Mukasey said he would not discuss whether he thinks waterboarding is illegal.

"Given that waterboarding is not part of the current program, and may never be added to the program, I do not think it would be appropriate for me to pass definitive judgment on the technique's legality," Mukasey said in his first appearance before the committee since being sworn in Nov. 9.

Wednesday’s hearing - a kabuki dance where everyone involved knew precisely what their counterparts were going to say before they said it - merely reaffirms that this Attorney General, not unlike that past two Bush Administration attorneys general, wants to retain for his client, the White House, all possible interrogation options in the future, said CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen.

Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama rallied to Mukasey's defense, calling it "an embarrassment" that the questioning could give the impression that U.S. interrogators frequently engage in waterboarding.

"That is not true," Sessions said.

Waterboarding has happened in three known interrogations of al Qaeda members since 2001.

At his confirmation hearings in October, Mukasey refused to define waterboarding as torture because he was unfamiliar with the classified Justice Department memos describing the process and legal arguments surrounding it. He was willing to risk losing confirmation over his answer on waterboarding, according to a knowledgeable committee official who was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

The CIA and the Pentagon banned waterboarding in 2006. Critics want the Justice Department to join other nations and outlaw waterboarding as illegal. But U.S. intelligence officials fear that doing so could make government interrogators - including those from the CIA - vulnerable to retroactive criminal charges or civil lawsuits.

Waterboarding is at the heart of a Justice Department criminal investigation over whether the CIA illegally or otherwise improperly destroyed videotapes in 2005 of two terror suspects being interrogated. The tapes showed harsh interrogations, including possible waterboarding, of suspected terrorists Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri in 2002, when both suspects were held in secret CIA prisons overseas. The tapes were destroyed as intelligence officials debated whether waterboarding should be declared illegal.

[ioweign]

Mukasey Still Mum On Waterboarding
Attorney General Won''t Publicly Say Whether Interrogation Tactic Is Torture Or Legal

Did anyone ask him if he ever heard of the Geneva Convention ?

[keithle1]

Do it to the old f a r t for an hour & see if he calls it "torture."

[prinzowhales]

Mukasey is also interfering with an investigation of the politicalization of the federal prosecutors... he''s a real scum bag...but, its not like the Democrats are going to do anything about it.

[fiteit1]

Why would anyone find this surprising. To say it is illegal or torture would legitimize war crime claims against Bush and the military. Wait until Bush is gone and then bring up this issue and all the others he has swept under the executive privilege and national security carpet. Then try them all on war crimes, crimes against humanity, illegal search and seizer and wire-tapping.

[sgtrds]

If he refuses to answer the question then water-board him until he speaks...........

[rowdytexan2]

I sitll can''t figure out why his appointment went thru. What was the *** rush to have an attorney general? Why couldn''t they have waited and made Bush nominate someone else?

Or did he have someone really wearing a szwastica lined up for his next appointment?

[cbs_oliver]

This is thanks to those jerks Chucky Schumer and Diane Feinstein and a few other Quizling Democrats.

We need better Democrats.

[old5hita55]

Waterbord the *** out of them there rag heads! Who cares if theys suffers some. Its better then they deserv for what theys done

[old5hita55]

Mukasey Still Mum On Waterboarding
Attorney General Won''''t Publicly Say Whether Interrogation Tactic Is Torture Or Legal

Did anyone ask him if he ever heard of the Geneva Convention ?



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by IOWEIGN ...........................................................Have YOU ever read the Geneva Convention? Obviously not, you''re just another turkey that gobbles when you hear another turkey gobbling the same thing.

[fiteit1]

OLD5HITA55, obviously you haven''t read the Geneva Convention either. So here is something to fill the empty space between your ears.

Excerpts from the Geneva Convention,

Article 1
1. For the purposes of this Convention, torture means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession,

Article 2
2. No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat or war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.
3. An order from a superior officer or a public authority may not be invoked as a justification of torture.

Article 3
1. No State Party shall expel, return ("refouler") or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture.

Article 4
1. Each State Party shall ensure that all acts of torture are offences under its criminal law. The same shall apply to an attempt to commit torture and to an act by any person which constitutes complicity or participation in torture.
2. Each State Party shall make these offences punishable by appropriate penalties which take into account their grave nature.

Bush and company is guilty of each article.

[psk123-2009]

He is the nation''s top AG, it IS his job to weigh in and have an opinion on the matter. By refusing to say one way or the other it looks an awful lot like water boarding IS illegal and he knows it, but to actually come out and say it would get the pres in big trouble.

[robertkjjj]

HA HA
I hope he ups the ante and uses electrocution instead.
Water is wayyyyyyy too kind and gentle to be used on the Islamist scum.

[msd1972]

I just read an interesting article. I too think that waterboarding is actually tying someone to a board or chair (see Mel Gibson in Conspiracy Theory), and dunking them in a pool of water up to the point they almost drown, and then pull them up at the last minute. I don''t think putting a towel over my head and pouring water on my face is going to make me think I''m drowning, unless, they hold my mouth open and force water in. I don''t know.

m.

http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2005/Waterboarding-Definition-Wikipedia24dec05.htm

[tmittelstaed]

The only sure way of getting reliable information out of a prisoner is to co-opt them. The inquisitor has to build a relationship of trust with the prisoner, and over time, convince him that the prisoners beliefs are wrong. In short, brainwashing. It takes years to do it, and the inquisitor and prisoner have to forge a bond, which if they are both coming from wildly different backgrounds, may be impossible.
My personal opinion is that with these Arab terrorist prisoners that doing this is simply impossible. I''d rather see them secretly inject the prisoner with a small radio transmitter and then release the prisoner, then track where he goes and listen to who he''s talking to and what he''s saying - and when it''s clear he''s holed up with his other terrorist buddies planning another attack - then send in the cruise missiles.

[gce65]

Mr Mukasey: YOU ARE A COWARD!

[gce65]

"The issue briefly snarled Mukasey''s confirmation hearings by the same Senate committee last October. At the time, Mukasey refused to define waterboarding as torture because he was unfamiliar with the classified Justice Department memos describing the process and legal arguments surrounding it.

He promised then, however, to review the memos if confirmed and return an answer to the Senate Judiciary Committee."

Mukasey: YOU ARE A LIAR! You''re the right man for this administration; YOUR CREDIBILITY''S SHOT!

[sophielhu]

I just read an interesting article. I too think that waterboarding is actually tying someone to a board or chair (see Mel Gibson in Conspiracy Theory), and dunking them in a pool of water up to the point they almost drown, and then pull them up at the last minute. I don''''t think putting a towel over my head and pouring water on my face is going to make me think I''''m drowning, unless, they hold my mouth open and force water in. I don''''t know.
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[marcpcbs]

This whole situation is just waterboarding under the bridge. We should just move on.

Hay I''ve heard that pulling finger nails works.

[brianbwb-2009]

"Attorney General Won''t Publicly Say Whether Interrogation Tactic Is Torture Or Legal"

It is not his right to decide, as controlled drowning has been recognized as torture since the Spanish Inquisition, and American soldiers from WW2 and Vietnam have already been tried and found guilty of torture from it. It is a clear violation of the Geneva Convention, and just because Bush calls POWs "enemy combatants" does not change the history of torture, nor does it somehow make the POWs ("detainees") any less deserving of their human rights under the Ceneva Convention, to which the US is a signatory.

[brianbwb-2009]

Posted by sophielhu

Take your porn spam elsewhere, we don''t need commercials for gay porn sites here.

[vet_sk]

I spent last year in Iraq and found that way too many poeple like robertkjjj: : " HA HA I hope he ups the ante and uses electrocution instead. Water is wayyyyyyy too kind and gentle to be used on the Islamist scum."

A very, very sad decade for America when our President inspires people to think like that.

[mcvet]

HA HA
I hope he ups the ante and uses electrocution instead.
Water is wayyyyyyy too kind and gentle to be used on the Islamist scum.


Posted by robertkjjj at 01:27 AM : Jan 30, 2008
+ report abuse

Ever read the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich? German''s didn''t have a problem with using this type of thing on that "Jewish Scum" either... in fact they didn''t have a problem until THEY were targeted. Wonder what YOU are going to say when YOU are designated an "enemy combatant"? When we abandon our most basic beliefs because some, like this fool, are so scared they will give them up, we spit on the graves of all those who died for those beliefs. The most basic belief in this nations history is a person is innocent until PROVEN guilty. This kind of this is and always will be the act of cowards!! Sieg Heil Bush

[neoconrcrazy]

The Government is more important and not answerable to the People.

Posted by FloydZepp


so, in your opinion, why did Feinstein & Shumer allow this guy in? They could have blocked him.

[cbs_oliver]

Chuck Schummer is a supporter of Hillary Clinton.

I think Diane Feinstein is too.

We need better Democrats.

[ioweign]

Mukasey Still Mum On Waterboarding
Attorney General Won''t Publicly Say Whether Interrogation Tactic Is Torture Or Legal

Did anyone ask him if he ever heard of the Geneva Convention ?


Posted by IOWEIGN ........................................
...................Have YOU ever read the Geneva Convention? Obviously not, you''re just another turkey that gobbles when you hear another turkey gobbling the same thing.

Posted by OLD5HITA55 at 11:32 PM : Jan 29, 2008


Actually, I have read some of it - I have attached a link so you could edUcate that sorry azz of yours...


http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/93.htm

[b-easy63]

"In years past, the Justice Department''s "secret legal memoranda have sought to define torture down to meaninglessness," said Leahy. "I trust that today, Attorney General Mukasey will answer our questions and speak not as merely the legal representative of this president, but as the attorney general for all Americans."

So now, what do the 2 sell outs (Schumer and Feinstein) have to say?

[mcvet]

So now, what do the 2 sell outs (Schumer and Feinstein) have to say?


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by b-easy63 at 08:33 AM : Jan 30, 2008
+ report abuse

Would you people stop blaming the Democrats for the disgusting conduct of this Administration. It''s only going to be a few months until a Democratic President will be presenting THEIR choice for all these departments. There''s a very good chance that THEY will pick up the pieces of LONG held standards of both Parties... the standard that the best legal minds available, regardless of party, will take the jobs. The Justice Department was a shambles LONG before this man came along and LONG before the two senators you pointed to had any involvement.

[mcvet]

so, in your opinion, why did Feinstein & Shumer allow this guy in? They could have blocked him.





--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by neoconRcrazy at 06:55 AM : Jan 30, 2008
+ report abuse

And what is the history of the Fascist when that happens? They go pick someone without a record and what then? Sometimes the devil you know is better than the devil you don''t know.

[mcvet]

Chuck Schummer is a supporter of Hillary Clinton.

I think Diane Feinstein is too.

We need better Democrats.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by CBS_Oliver at 07:43 AM : Jan 30, 2008
+ report abuse

Because of THIS? That''s INSANE! If you are going to go around blaming the Democrats for appointments of Republican''s it''s going to be a long long road back. The decision of BOTH of them should be up to the folks who ELECT them but blaming the party because you are unhappy with this decision is PLAIN STUPID... especially when you look at the complete FAILURE of the FASCIST in the 6 years prior!! It''s STUPID!!

[neoconrcrazy]

Sometimes the devil you know is better than the devil you don''''t know.

Posted by MCVet

true - problem is they would prefer to ignore the damage that has been done - pass it on to a new administration and not bother to confront the biggest blunder in american history....

[jowand]

The decision of BOTH of them should be up to the folks who ELECT them but blaming the party because you are unhappy with this decision is PLAIN STUPID... especially when you look at the complete FAILURE of the FASCIST in the 6 years prior!! It''''s STUPID!!

Posted by MCVet at 08:48 AM : Jan 30, 2008

The closest thing to faschism in the US is the present Democrat Party, They are the ones who want centralized authoritarian goverment control on everything. You may hate Bush but Bush a faschist, definitely not.
How would you get confessions out AQ Terrorists, play tapes of Hillary laughing or Big AL Gore giving one of his phony global warming speeches. You have zero solutions to the problem just sitting on the fence throwing hate rocks. What would you do to get AQ terrorists to talk, not your rambling "mucho pomposo" what you wouldn''t do double speak?

[wdrussell1]

Well how about that. Dr. Mengele calls himself a patriot.

[prinzowhales]

Another CIA/drug plane has been uncovered--though you would never know it if your head was stuck up the arse-end of the Corporatist Media Empire of CNNCBSABCNBCFOX...The Zio-Nazi Mukasey will not investigate any of the THREE planes--two down in Mexico, one found in Nicaragua--this treacherous piece of human garbage cannot even bring himself to say what the rest of the world knows--WATERBOARDING IS TORTURE!!!

Down with the vile Washington Regime and its criminal leaders! Troops home now! The borders are open! The front men for bankers, drug lords and foreign powers are in control! The dung-eater Ashcroft is gone...Gonzalez is under investigation for his cover-up of the pederasts in charge of juvenile detention in Texas...and we are left with Mukasey...a man who cannot bring himself to admit the obvious!

[prinzowhales]

This is a link to the story of the CIA-drug/rendition plane uncovered in Nicaragua--after two others have already gone down in Mexico.

http://www.narconews.com/Issue49/article2989.html

The CIA front companies are run by men, some of whom have direct connections to the political establishment. Its no accident that a drug running felon ran the compnay that was responsible for tabulating 81% of the utterly corrupt New Hampshire vote....its no accident that CIA pros and their familiars are tied to the vote counting machine industry...

[inventagod]

US tortures
US murders
US invades

[stevex47]

You''d think, if you were a "good" Attorney General of the United States, you''d be able to answer a simple question of the legality of this treatment.

[cbs_oliver]

OMG ( ;) ) there''s a sniper in the bushes.

[taotxzen]

What you are not hearing: What happens if Mukasey, or any other AG, states that water boarding is torture? All of the sudden the Bush Gangs definition of what constitutes torture is suddenly null and void. He can no longer stand before the American people and say. %u2018We don%u2019t torture.%u2019 Also, he will be subject to being tried for War Crimes according to that %u2018antiquated%u2019 standard know as the Geneva Convention. That is the real reason why Bush cannot accept any AG that acknowledges that water boarding is torture.

[connapa]

Of course, he won''t make that decision. This way, if they should capture another high ranking target in the war on terrorism, they will be able to apply the technique because it has not been ruled as "torture" or "illegal." If they were to decide that now, then it would eliminate waterboarding as a method of extracting info from a high level subject.

[emma915]

It doesn''t matter who uses it or not, our Attorney General should know if it''s legal or not.

[donbl1]

Assuming McCain gets the Republican nomination and Obama eekes out the Democratic nomination,,,,,,

What are the odds that AQ attempts to influence our elections with an "event"?

[taddles-2009]

If Mukasey says waterboarding is torture then he has to charge Bush and Cheney with war crimes, that''s why he will keep on the fence until Bush is out of office. Standard operating procedure...CYA.

[cbsblogger]

We have AIPAC, Schumer, Boxer and of course the neocons in the Whitehouse to thank for AG Mukasey

[hotpaulie]

God forbid the U.S. hold itself above other rogue nations and outlaw torture. Mukasey should be waterboarded. Bush hung and Cheney disemboweled.

[frankson2]

WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT. I HAD HOPED WE FINALLY HAD AN AG WITH SOME BALLS. THIS MAN DOESN''T EVEN WANT TO VENTURE A PERSONAL OPINION. LOOKS LIKE HE NEEDS HIS CUE FROM THE WHITEHOUSE ALA GONZALEZ. I EXPECTED TOO MUCH.

[killtheliars]

I say waterboard him, eventually he will give them the answer or he will die, it is a win win.

[xfed-2009]

GROW UP YOU WHINING CLINTONISTAS. WATER GETS POURED ON A POOR LITTLE TERRORISTS FACE AND SCARES HIM. BOO HOO. IF IT STOPS ANOTHER 9/11 I HOPE THEY POUR A WHOLE RIVER UP THEIR PSYCHOTIC NOSES.

[kofiananimus]

Why does the Bush administration hate America?

[xfed-2009]

WHY DO YOU?

[minminmin-2009]

What would you do to get AQ terrorists to talk....

Posted by jowand at 09:41 AM : Jan 30, 2008

That''s not the point. Torture is illegal. We claim we don''t do it, and get very upset when other countries torture. We get all up in arms and scream about human rights violations, etc. etc.

If the US is going to torture AQ detainess, I''d rather see them stand up and cop to it, not deny it. If Bush stood up and said, "Yep, we''ll torture any AQ we capture till they spill the beans, or send ''em to hell...their choice" I''d have more respect for the man if he''d do that...than continually say the US doesn''t torture, when it''s a lie.