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Mukasey Still Does Not Know If Waterboarding Is Torture

By Big Tent Democrat, Section Other Politics
Posted on Tue Oct 30, 2007 at 05:42:03 PM EST
Tags: Michael Mukasey, torture, waterboarding (all tags)
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Via TPM:

President Bush's nominee for attorney general told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday that he does not know whether waterboarding is illegal. He pledged to study the matter and to reverse any Justice Department finding that endorses a practice that violates the law or the Constitution. "If, after such a review, I determine that any technique is unlawful, I will not hesitate to so advise the president and will rescind or correct any legal opinion of the Department of Justice that supports the use of the technique," Michael Mukasey wrote to the committee's 10 Democrats.

Incredible. Shameless. Outrageous. Disqualifying.

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    Mukasey Still Does Not Know If Waterboarding Is Torture | 11 comments (11 topical)

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    Mukasey is dishonest. (5.00 / 1) (#5)
    by Edger on Tue Oct 30, 2007 at 10:20:32 PM EST
    Like Giuliani and Bush, Mukasey knows it is torture and knows that it is illegal. He's a flat out liar, parroting Bush.

    Incredible. Shameless. Outrageous. Disqualifying. Worse than Gonzales. And Yoo.

    exactly (5.00 / 1) (#6)
    by tnthorpe on Tue Oct 30, 2007 at 10:41:52 PM EST
    How can he not know?

    To claim as Diogenes does above that there's anything "gleeful" about a time when our government is lead by such moral cretins is really off the mark. It's a nauseatingly profound embarassment and I fervently hope that the worst of it is over by the time my nephews become young adults.

    Parent

    diogenes is dishonest as well (5.00 / 0) (#7)
    by Edger on Tue Oct 30, 2007 at 10:50:06 PM EST
    He knows what waterboarding is. Knows it is torture. And knows it is illegal under US and international law.

    Parent
    Fuel for his lamp? (5.00 / 0) (#10)
    by Edger on Wed Oct 31, 2007 at 12:34:18 PM EST
    Heh! I think he's just playing with some psych testing with his comments here.

    .........................................
    Rorschach commenting, diog? ;-)

    Parent

    Every human (5.00 / 2) (#11)
    by Jen M on Wed Oct 31, 2007 at 12:50:32 PM EST
    knows what torture is.  

    Or know it when they feel it!

    Parent

    Mukasey and waterboarding (5.00 / 1) (#8)
    by azportsider on Wed Oct 31, 2007 at 08:40:47 AM EST
    So Mukasey doesn't know if waterboarding constitutes torture, and is therefore illegal? In 1947 the US war crimes commission claimed no such ignorance. They charged Japanese officer Yukio Asano with the war crime of waterboarding a US civilian, convicted him, and sentenced him to 15 years of hard labor.

    I'll admit Mukasey's in an impossible spot. If he agrees that waterboarding is torture, then the very man who nominated him will be on the hook for at least one war crime, though of course Bush is clearly guilty of many more than just the one war crime.

    If, on the other hand, Mukasey thinks  waterboarding is acceptable behavior, then he has no right to become Attorney General because he doesn't know the law.

    open question (1.00 / 1) (#4)
    by diogenes on Tue Oct 30, 2007 at 07:45:34 PM EST
    Lots of things are considered to be morally wrong but do not violate a specific law.  An open statement about "lawlessness" would invite more countries indicting Rumsfeld, etc.  Those of you who are gleefully awaiting this need to remember that similar abuses happened under the LBJ and FDR war regimes, and I doubt that you would have wanted the French to indict them.  

    How can he not (none / 0) (#1)
    by tnthorpe on Tue Oct 30, 2007 at 06:06:33 PM EST
    know that? Where's John Yoo when you need him?

    I wonder (none / 0) (#2)
    by Jeralyn on Tue Oct 30, 2007 at 06:27:00 PM EST
    how strong the Dems will be on this at the debate tonight. I expect Dodd to be the most eloquent about it.

    Here's a simple resolution (none / 0) (#3)
    by scarshapedstar on Tue Oct 30, 2007 at 07:16:57 PM EST
    Waterboard Mukasey for, I dunno, 8 or 12 hours, something realistic. If it's not torture then he should have no qualms about it.

    Bush's defense of Mukasey (none / 0) (#12)
    by CovertCommunist on Thu Nov 01, 2007 at 10:08:57 AM EST
    So Bush doesn't want to tell the enemy that if we capture them, we might waterboard them? If they knew this was our secret weapon, Mr Bush, how would they adjust their tactics? Really? Truthfully? How painfully obvious does the BS have to become? Next step: beheading the enemy?  Waterboard Cheney, and Bush, and Rice, and then have them tell us it is not torture. The terrorists have won. They have reduced us to their level.

    Mukasey Still Does Not Know If Waterboarding Is Torture | 11 comments (11 topical)

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