Mukasey Dodges Senators’ Grilling on Waterboarding
During a visit to Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Attorney General Michael Mukasey irked certain senators by wiggling out of directly stating whether or not he believes that waterboarding is a form of torture, an expected but apparently exasperating dodge in the estimation of Sens. Edward Kennedy and Patrick Leahy, among others.
During a visit to Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Attorney General Michael Mukasey irked certain senators by wiggling out of directly stating whether or not he believes that waterboarding is a form of torture, an expected but apparently exasperating dodge in the estimation of Sens. Edward Kennedy and Patrick Leahy, among others.
Your support matters…The New York Times:
As expected, Mr. Mukasey refused to be pinned down on whether waterboarding, which creates a drowning sensation, constitutes torture when it is used in the interrogation of suspected terrorists. He said that it would be improper for him to give an opinion, since he is the attorney general, and that his opinion is not really necessary in any event, since the Central Intelligence Agency no longer uses the technique.
“Given that waterboarding is not part of the current program and may never be added to the current program, I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to pass definitive judgment on the technique’s legality,” the attorney general said, speaking in the cautious way that his Senate questioners have sometimes found evasive and infuriating.
The anger of some committee members was further stoked on Tuesday evening, when in a letter to the panel Mr. Mukasey said that waterboarding was not clearly illegal and that perhaps it could be used again against terrorism suspects if requested by the White House.
Independent journalism is under threat and overshadowed by heavily funded mainstream media.
You can help level the playing field. Become a member.
Your tax-deductible contribution keeps us digging beneath the headlines to give you thought-provoking, investigative reporting and analysis that unearths what's really happening- without compromise.
Give today to support our courageous, independent journalists.
Forget WikiLeaks, speeches to Goldman Sachs and the behind-the-scenes machinations of John Podesta. The FBI director’s letter to Congress was the ultimate October surprise.
After mischaracterizing a law governing medical marijuana distribution, the president who refused to prosecute those who led the U.S. into an indefinite war on terror told a Rolling Stone interviewer last month that he couldn't ask the Justice Department to "turn the other way" when it comes to potential violations of medical marijuana use.
How exactly does an administration lose millions of e-mails? However it happened, 22 million Bush-era White House e-mails have been recovered, and more may be found. The content, however, probably won't be made public for years.
Seems like even those Bushies who didn't manage to make it to the end of the W. age with their political reputations intact are popping up with brand new jobs; take, for example, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who's slated to teach a political science course at Texas Tech University this fall.
The Bush administration may have exited the proverbial building, but that isn't stopping certain House Democrats, such as House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, from taking Bush sidekick Karl Rove to task for his potential role in the Justice Department's pink-slipping of several U.S. attorneys in 2006.
Read the devastating bipartisan report from the Senate Armed Services Committee that indicts high-level Bush administration officials -- including former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld -- as bearing major responsibility for the torture at Abu Gharib, Guantanamo, and other detention facilities.
You need to be a supporter to comment.
There are currently no responses to this article.
Be the first to respond.