Mukasey nomination stalls on definition of torture
November 1st, 2007 at 6:49 pm . by el nuko
Waterboarding. Torture or not?
When President Bush nominated Judge Michael Mukasey to replace Alberto Gonzales as the U.S. attorney general, Democrats applauded.
And then Mukasey started talking. During confirmation hearings a couple weeks ago, Mukasey refused to say whether he thought that waterboarding amounted to torture.
Umm, wrong answer, came the reply from Democrats who control the Senate judiciary committee.
So Mukasey followed up with a letter this week describing waterboarding as personally “repugnant” and “over the line.” But he hedged on whether the practise is actually illegal.
Americans can be forgiven for being confused on the matter. Congress has banned the U.S. military from using the technique, which involves simulated drowning of an interrogation suspect. But the CIA has used waterboarding at least three times, and Mukasey’s refusal to declare the practise illegal is viewed as an attempt to protect the agents involved from prosecution.
At the Heritage Foundation this afternoon, President Bush weighed in….
“As a price for his confirmation, some on that committee want Judge Mukasey take a legal position on specific techniques allegedly used to interrogate captured terrorists.
“As Judge Mukasey explained in a letter to committee members, he cannot do so for several reasons.
“First, he does not know whether certain methods of questioning are, in fact, used, because the program is classified. And therefore, he is in no position to provide an informed opinion. He has not been read into the program and won’t until he is confirmed and sworn in as the attorney general.
“Second, he does not want an uninformed opinion to be taken by our professional interrogators in the field as placing them in legal jeopardy. Finally, he does not want any statement of his to give the terrorists a window into which techniques we may use and which ones we may not use. That could help them train their operatives to resist questioning and withhold vital information we need to stop attacks and save lives.”
Last year, Steve Harrigan of Fox News gave a very dramatic first-person report on the subject. Here is the video.
And, here is a link to the FoxNews report on their website
Harrigan says it’s more about fear than pain. “The thing that impressed me was just how quickly you can recover. They took me to the brink, where I was ready to submit and tell them anything….and then just minutes later I’m standing beside that pool, feeling fine.” Harrigan concludes, “This seems like a pretty efficient mechanism to get somebody to talk, and then still have them alive and healthy within minutes.”
Update: The Admiral of Chappaquiddick will vote against Mukasey…
“Judge Mukasey appears to be a careful, conscientious and intelligent lawyer and he has served our country honorably for many years,” Kennedy said in a Senate speech announcing his opposition. “But those qualities are not enough for this critical position at this critical time.”
Kennedy said Mukasey’s unwillingness to say that waterboarding is torture increases the chances that it will be used against U.S. troops.
Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment.
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I say it’s alright to put a terrorist through water-boarding. Now if we could just have them only do that to people they capture (instead of beheading them)….
ain’t that the truth.
I had heard that Sen.Chucky Schumer supported Mukasey, and that many donk votes would follow his.
As for water boarding, or any interrogation method that gets results, as opposed to those that don’t, it just reveals the lack of seriousness about defeating an enemy that wants us dead.
I chuckled at the last episode of the South Park trilogy “Imaginationland,” when the press was asking questions about the pending ‘Nuking” of imaginationland, and the immediate hippy protests.
There will always be those that are opposed to any idea that might be too severe in a civilized setting, without regard to the lack of civility in war.
On another note, I was at the airport yesterday, and as is my custom, when I see a uniformed member of our armed services, I always approach them, and thank them for their service, and for all that they do for us. Sometimes they will talk, and in this case a lone G.I. was the one I was addressing, and I talked with him for a few minutes, asking him if he was coming home, or going to the sandbox. He was returning, to complete his 18month deployment, and when I talked with him about how things are going there, and the improvements in the last few months, he smiled, and was clearly upbeat, his morale was supremely excellent, as he smiled and talked freely. I told him it was his and his brothers at arms, that have made things better, and the Iraqi people are now taking up the slack. He seemed a little surprised that some ol’guy here in the states would know that, but he nodded in agreement. I told him to keep up the good work, and stay safe.
I believe, if he had been asked, that if water boarding was an option to getting real time intel from a terrorist, he would have said “certainly.”
The Gates of Vienna had a nice report up on the counterjihad summit.