Mukasey Refused to Define Waterboarding Torture
Yesterday, Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey repudiated the notion of torture, saying it is “worse than a sin, it is a mistake” and that is “antithetical” to what America stands for.
Today Mukasey took a different position by twisting his answers and employing semantics. When asked by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy (D-VT), and more specifically by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), if waterboarding is torture, Mukasey refused to classify the practice as torture, saying it depened upon how torture is defined.
SEN. LEAHY: Is the current statue outlawing torture constitutional?
MUKASEY: I believe it is.
SEN. LEAHY: So if something was authorized outside that statue…that authorization is illegal?
MUKASEY: Correct.
SEN. WHITEHOUSE : Is waterboarding constitutional?
MUKASEY: I don’t know waht’s invovled in the technique. if waterboarding is torture, torture is not constitutional.
SEN. WHITEHOUSE : If waterboarding is constitutional is a massive hedge…Either it is or it isn’t. Do you have an opinion on whether waterboarding, which is the practice of putting somebody in a reclining position, strapping them down, put a cloth over their faces, and pouring water over the cloth to simulate the feeling of drowning. Is that constitutional?
MUKASEY: If it amounts to torture, it is not constitutional.
SEN. WHITEHOUSE : I am very disappointed in that answer. I think it is purely semantic.
MUKASEY: I’m sorry.
Watch the video:
Did Mukasey have dinner with Dick Cheney last night after the hearing?
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