{"id":13422,"date":"2007-10-31T09:20:49","date_gmt":"2007-10-31T13:20:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/13422.html"},"modified":"2007-10-31T09:20:49","modified_gmt":"2007-10-31T13:20:49","slug":"mukaseys-tortured-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/mukaseys-tortured-response\/","title":{"rendered":"Mukasey’s tortured response"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Mukasey’s confirmation as the next Attorney General continues to be in doubt, in large part because he refuses to answer<\/a> a simple and obvious question.<\/p>\n

Attorney general nominee Michael B. Mukasey told Senate Democrats yesterday that a kind of simulated drowning known as waterboarding is “repugnant to me,” but he said he does not know whether the interrogation tactic violates U.S. laws against torture. […]<\/p>\n

In a four-page letter to the Judiciary Committee, Mukasey walked a tightrope by outlining the laws and treaties forbidding torture and other cruel treatment, and explaining the legal analysis he would undertake of “coercive” techniques, while generally declining to render judgments.<\/p>\n

Mukasey said that techniques described as waterboarding by lawmakers “seem over the line or, on a personal basis, repugnant to me, and would probably seem the same to many Americans.” But, he continued, “hypotheticals are different from real life, and in any legal opinion the actual facts and circumstances are critical.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There’s nothing “hypothetical” about it. We know what waterboarding is — the Senate Judiciary Committee reminded him of the technique’s horrid details last week — we know it’s illegal, and we know the United States has prosecuted those who’ve used waterboarding since the Spanish-American War.<\/p>\n

As for the “circumstances” dodge, this is a little too reminiscent of Rudy Giuliani’s contention<\/a> that waterboarding may not be torture at all: “It depends on how it’s done. It depends on the circumstances. It depends on who does it.” A response like that made Giuliani sound like he’s stark raving mad, but Mukasey’s response isn’t a whole lot better.<\/p>\n

The more Mukasey simply refuses to acknowledge reality, the more it puts his confirmation in doubt.
\n<\/p>\n

Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), the Judiciary panel’s chairman, reacted with blunt dissatisfaction, saying in a statement yesterday that he will continue to delay any vote on Mukasey until the nominee answers more questions from lawmakers. “I remain very concerned that Judge Mukasey finds himself unable to state unequivocally that waterboarding is illegal and below the standards and values of the United States,” he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Senate Minority Leader Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) added<\/a> that Mukasey had “spent four pages responding and still didn’t provide an answer” to the question, “Is waterboarding illegal?” “Judge Mukasey makes the point that in the law, precision matters. So do honesty and openness. And on those counts, he falls far short.”<\/p>\n

As for Republicans, Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.) says he still wants a straight answer out of Mukasey, but the rest of the GOP members on the Judiciary Committee issued a joint news release asking the Senate to “stop playing politics with the Justice Department.”<\/p>\n

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said late last week that Mukasey’s position raises “doubts” about his fitness for office, but this week, has reversed course, saying he’s satisfied with the “facts and circumstances” letter issued yesterday.<\/p>\n

As for the big picture, Hilzoy offers<\/a> a helpful reminder:<\/p>\n

That we are even having a debate about this question, and that it is not a foregone conclusion that someone who claims not to know whether waterboarding is torture cannot possibly be confirmed as Attorney General, is a testament to the moral degradation of our country, and of our political discourse.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There is no vote scheduled on Mukasey’s nomination. Stay tuned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Mukasey’s confirmation as the next Attorney General continues to be in doubt, in large part because he refuses to answer a simple and obvious question. Attorney general nominee Michael B. Mukasey told Senate Democrats yesterday that a kind of simulated drowning known as waterboarding is “repugnant to me,” but he said he does not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13422\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}