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.

[medwolf-2009]

congress is what is wrong with the systems nowdays.
it is full of bleeding heart libreals. as far as turtore goes would rather have it happen and find out plans before they happen, than to have to hear about how many thousands lost their life after

[slpdisk]

What do you mean ducking?Is there no accountability in our government anymore? Does congress even play a role in our security or have any say in matters of checks and balances?

[slpdisk]

Not to mention this is the same guy that got Larry Silverstein paid 5 billion while working as a judge after w t c 7 came down from controlled demo .After ruling that silverstein gets paid was promoted by bush to attorney general. Something smells fishy here.Peace in the middle east!

[slpdisk]

They admit there were no WMDs and no ties to Al Qaeda but somehow want to pacify the fact they used torture on suspects. Suspect by definition ;to believe to be guilty, false, counterfeit, undesirable, defective, bad, etc., with little or no proof: to suspect a person of murder.
So if we invaded illegally and these people or suspects are a result of that illegal invasion, doesn''t that make these irreverent offenses beyond morally wrong and illegal.

[speakinup]

"Only an idiot allows gross incompetence to kill his brother Marines...... Posted by formrusmcsgt

I see, so fragging is ok if in YOUR OPINION someone, in this case your platoon leader, is incompetent. Well, I believe you''d find yourself in deep trouble Marine. ART. 90. ASSAULTING OR WILLFULLY DISOBEYING SUPERIOR COMMISSIONED OFFICER, or would it be ART. 118. MURDER.

Of course if there were two of you in the act, it would be ART. 94. MUTINY OR SEDITION.

Now, as you are a hot-head jerk on this site, I''ll give yo the benefit of the doubt - that when the chips are down you''d do the right thing.

Otherwise, I''ll assume you didn''t leave the Corps, it left you.




While I was in ROTC, the obligation was 4 years active duty and 2 years inactive reserve, which was then reduced retro-actively (around 1976 sometime) to a total of 6 years, 2 years which had to be active duty for the $100/mo stipend for the last two years of ROTC.


witless - your usual comments speak volumes. You bring great discredit upon your unit, yourself and the Navy.

[ajayvee]

I would love to know that Schumer and Feinstein will eventually be made to pay for their betrayal. However, in this day and age of no accountability, I seriously doubt it.

[r9119111]

I have another question for Mr. Mukasey as a tax paying citizen:

Should politicians with blatantly self-serving or criminal intent be allowed to remain in office?

[brianbwb-2009]

"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."

"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."

So he lied, and is still lying. He won''t commit now because he knows full well that they are still doing it. as far as legality, we all know it is illegal, this question should not be before him the question should be "why are you not prosecuting those for whom we have irrefutable evidence of doing it, and those who destroyed evidence of the same?"

[brianbwb-2009]

Posted by sophielhu

Take the spam somewhere else, sister.

Reported, yet again.

[brianbwb-2009]

What I marvel at is that since water boarding has been regarded as a form of torture ever since the Spanish Inquisition, and that American GIs have already been tried and convicted for it in courts martial, during WW2 and Vietnam, the fact that the Senate is wasting time asking this obvious Bush lackey the moot question of whether or not it is legal, indicates to me that some pretty well placed senators are either afraid of bush, complicit in his crimes, or are trying to shake Bush down for a piece of Bush''s kickbacks from the war profiteers.

The fact that he won''t answer indicates that he knows that it is indeed universally accepted as torture, and violates the Geneva Convention, but still tries to lay on the tracks for Bush, hoping he can at least delay the train.

I say run him over, and let us get to the real criminals, we waste time on the lackeys, while the Mob bosses continue to eat steak cut from the flesh of our soldiers.

[briannorwood]

COWARD!

[libsluvsuvs]

j-whitman, Were you invited to the execution?

" Afghan Reporter To Die For Insulting Islam
Court Delivers Death Sentence Over Article Critical Of Islam Distributed To Class"

[jowand]

He''s a cool guy

[jkhagemann]

crzmeat... are you retarted? Oh, let me be politicaly correct; do you suffer from "downs syndrome"?

[j-whitman]

crzmeat,,, How about that Mukasey ?? I think the White House lawyers got to him

[taotxzen]

OK, let me put this into a context that you might be able to grasp. Your hero on 24, Jack Bauer, have you ever seen Jack pistol whip an innocent bystander?

That is just like torturing someone that is not a terrorist and is not a member of Al Qaeda. That is what we call wrong in our world, it is also called illegal.

US War Prisons Legal Vacuum for 14,000
By Patrick Quinn
The Associated Press

Sunday 16 September 2006

In the few short years since the first shackled Afghan shuffled off to Guantanamo, the U.S. military has created a global network of overseas prisons, its islands of high security keeping 14,000 detainees beyond the reach of established law.

(cont)

[taotxzen]

(cont)

Disclosures of torture and long-term arbitrary detentions have won rebuke from leading voices including the U.N. secretary-general and the U.S. Supreme Court. But the bitterest words come from inside the system, the size of several major U.S. penitentiaries.

''''It was hard to believe I''''d get out,'''' Baghdad shopkeeper Amjad Qassim al-Aliyawi told The Associated Press after his release - without charge - last month. ''''''''I lived with the Americans for one year and eight months as if I was living in hell.''''''''

Captured on battlefields, pulled from beds at midnight, grabbed off streets as suspected insurgents, tens of thousands now have passed through U.S. detention, the vast majority in Iraq.

Many say they were caught up in U.S. military sweeps, often interrogated around the clock, then released months or years later without apology, compensation or any word on why they were taken. Seventy to 90 percent of the Iraq detentions in 2003 were ''''mistakes,'''' U.S. officers once told the international Red Cross.

[j-whitman]

speakinshiit,,,, only a chickshit pretends to have served in our military services ----- You are a dishonorable chickenshit

[Krazcarl]

If you folks want to have a conversation can''t you go to another site or IM you are ruining the blog cause your bored and we all see it and no one offers thier opinion because they know it''s a waste of time.805 of the posters have left since I started posting go to the STD site your boring everyone to death and of the blog {that means most folks think your idiots and don''t want to waste thier time it doen''t mean your right in you agenda.

[observantx]

Laura!


Laura! C%u2019mere! Quick! I wanta show ya m%u2019new dawg!

Jes%u2019 lookit%u2019em. Ain%u2019t he a beut! He%u2019s one of them rare new breeds. A Mukasey! Them 2 senators, whats%u2019ere names. Uh, um, uh, Fine something? Uh. Feinstein! Yeah, Laura, yer right! Feinstein and the other? Uh. Shoeman? No. Schumer. That%u2019s it. They gott%u2019em for me.

Ain%u2019t he jes%u2019 the cutest?!
I mean lookit him. All waggletailed and so happy to see me. I mean, I bet I can teach him tricks, y%u2019know. Like Sit, an%u2019 Speak, and he definitely knows how to roll over, already.

Wait%u2019ll Barney sees%u2019im. I bet they%u2019ll jes%u2019 spend all day running around and playing dog stuff. Laura watch this! I%u2019ve got a treat in m%u2019pocket here.

Uh. What do I call him? Something short an%u2019 simple works on any dawg. Hey! How about Mike? Yeah that%u2019s the ticket!

Here Mike! Here boy! Got%u2019cha a treat!

(Woof!) (Woof!)

(pant) (pant) (pant) (pant)

(drool) (slobber)

(WOOF!)

Good BOY!