Mukasey Might Prefer Waterboarding: Hearings Are A Form of Torture

News continues from the Mukasey hearings and it's not good if you're an administration looking for a few good men. The time is long past when hearings about administration nominees, for any post with more responsibility than Department of Amoeba Research, was routine.

More on this from the New York Times:

In adamantly refusing to declare waterboarding illegal, Michael B. Mukasey, the nominee for attorney general, is steering clear of a potential legal quagmire for the Bush administration: criminal prosecution or lawsuits against Central Intelligence Agency officers who used the harsh interrogation practice and those who authorized it, legal experts said Wednesday.

Three Republicans have hopped on the waterboarding issue, presidential candidate John McCain, as well as John Warner and Lindsey Graham. While McCain's stand is understandable, the other two Senators will be among the first voices heard if U.S. intelligence agencies fail to come up with information before the next catastrophic terrorist attack on U.S. soil.

Three Republicans who have denounced waterboarding wrote to Mr. Mukasey on Wednesday, suggesting that they would support him but urging him to declare waterboarding illegal after he is confirmed.

The senators, John McCain of Arizona, John W. Warner of Virginia and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said anyone who engaged in waterboarding “puts himself at risk of prosecution, including under the War Crimes Act, and opens himself to civil liability as well.”

Senate confirmation hearings are the biggest of political footballs, especially in the run-up to an election year. All of the questions about waterboarding obscures the real issue here. Torture now are the hearings themselves.

by Mondoreb
[image:boingboing]



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