Sometimes I am, reluctantly, impressed by the ability of the Bush administration.
In the current confirmation hearings for proposed attorney general Michael Mukasey, Mukasey has been asked a straight question: Is waterboarding torture? You know, is it torture to force water into someone’s lungs to make them feel like they’re drowning.
(And in case you’re wondering, the answer is yes. That’s why waterboarding has been used by torturers and oppressors for centuries).
Mukasey’s response, backed up by the president: He doesn’t know. Oh, it sounds horrible, but but he can’t offer a legal opinion because he doesn’t know exactly what the CIA is doing with waterboarding, or under what circumstances, so he can’t say whether their operations are legal or not.
So what’s the problem? As the Obsidian Wings blog has pointed out, all Mukasey has to do is define what he means by waterboarding and say whether he believes that constitutes torture. Then, if he becomes AG, he can take a look at the CIA programs and decide if they meet that definition.
Of course, that might make it harder for Bush to insist that none of the CIA’s interrogation techniques violate the law. Which might actually lead to restrictions on the use of torture by the United States. Which I think would be a good thing, but the president clearly disagrees.
If Mukasey can’t figure out whether waterboarding is torture or not, he shouldn’t be confirmed.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 2nd, 2007 at 10:44 am and is filed under Politics, Terrorism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.