AG Won't Call Waterboarding Torture

AG Won't Call Waterboarding Torture
Associated Press | January 30, 2008

WASHINGTON - Attorney General Michael Mukasey still won't say whether waterboarding is torture, a stance that is upsetting Senate Democrats who had threatened to derail his confirmation over the issue.

Mukasey's refusal to define waterboarding as illegal could provoke hostile questioning during a scheduled appearance Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee. It was to be his first appearance there since being sworn in Nov. 9 and comes on the heels of a letter sent to the panel's chairman signaling he will not ever publicly conclude that waterboarding is illegal.

"I understand that you and some other members of the (Judiciary) Committee may feel that I should go further in my review, and answer questions concerning the legality of waterboarding under current law," Mukasey wrote in a three-page letter Tuesday to the panel's chairman, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. "I understand the strong interest in this question, but I do not think it would be responsible for me, as attorney general, to provide an answer."

The letter came as a response to senators' demands for Mukasey to clarify whether the interrogation tactic known as waterboarding should be banned by the United States. The tactic that involves strapping down a person and pouring water over his cloth-covered face to create the sensation of drowning.

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. His non-answer reply Tuesday infuriated Democrats who accused the attorney general of being incapable of what they called making a simple legal decision.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,161050,00.html?wh=wh