US law chief, Democrats face clash on waterboarding
By Randall Mikkelsen
WASHINGTON, Jan 30 (Reuters) - The top U.S. law enforcement official faces a clash on Wednesday with Senate Democrats after he rejected demands to rule on the legality of an interrogation technique known as waterboarding
Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who is to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, told chairman Patrick Leahy in a letter on Tuesday that he had reviewed the CIA's current techniques for interrogating terrorism suspects and found them lawful.
Mukasey declined, however, to say whether he considered waterboarding to be illegal. Such a finding could fuel pressure to prosecute officials involved in CIA's interrogation program launched after the Sept. 11 attacks.
A U.S. official confirmed last week that waterboarding, a form of simulated drowning, was used in the past but had not been used in recent years.
Mukasey said that waterboarding was not part of the CIA's current program. "I do not believe that it is advisable to address difficult legal questions, about which responsible minds can and do differ, in the absence of concrete facts and circumstances," he told Leahy.
"There are some circumstances where current law would appear clearly to prohibit the use of waterboarding. Other circumstances would present a far closer question," he said.
Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont, and other lawmakers repeatedly pressed Mukasey in his confirmation hearings last year and afterward to say whether he considered waterboarding an illegal form of torture, as do many human rights groups and other critics.
KEEP PRESSING
Leahy vowed to keep pressing Mukasey at Wednesday's hearing.
"This last-minute response from the attorney general echoes what other administration officials have said about the use of waterboarding," he said. "It does not, however, answer the critical questions we have been asking about its legality. Attorney General Mukasey knows that this will not end the matter and expects to be asked serious questions at the hearing."
John Negroponte, the first U.S. director of national intelligence who served from 2005 to 2007, confirmed in a magazine interview published last week that waterboarding had been used in the interrogation program. But Negroponte, now deputy secretary of state, said it was not used during his term as spy chief "nor even a few years before that."
Although the Bush administration has been reluctant to discuss waterboarding publicly, Negroponte's remarks were in line with earlier reports that the CIA discontinued waterboarding in 2003, after using it on three "high-value" detainees.
Mukasey on Jan. 2 ordered the Justice Department to investigate the CIA's destruction of videotapes depicting the harsh interrogations of two terrorism suspects in 2002. At least one of the subjects, Abu Zubaydah, was believed to have been subjected to waterboarding.
Mukasey has rejected calls to appoint an independent counsel for the investigation. He has indicated investigators would be free to pursue evidence of illegal interrogation techniques in their probe, but department officials have said the focus remains on the tapes' destruction.
WASHINGTON, Jan 30 (Reuters) - The top U.S. law enforcement official faces a clash on Wednesday with Senate Democrats after he rejected demands to rule on the legality of an interrogation technique known as waterboarding
Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who is to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, told chairman Patrick Leahy in a letter on Tuesday that he had reviewed the CIA's current techniques for interrogating terrorism suspects and found them lawful.
Mukasey declined, however, to say whether he considered waterboarding to be illegal. Such a finding could fuel pressure to prosecute officials involved in CIA's interrogation program launched after the Sept. 11 attacks.
A U.S. official confirmed last week that waterboarding, a form of simulated drowning, was used in the past but had not been used in recent years.
Mukasey said that waterboarding was not part of the CIA's current program. "I do not believe that it is advisable to address difficult legal questions, about which responsible minds can and do differ, in the absence of concrete facts and circumstances," he told Leahy.
"There are some circumstances where current law would appear clearly to prohibit the use of waterboarding. Other circumstances would present a far closer question," he said.
Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont, and other lawmakers repeatedly pressed Mukasey in his confirmation hearings last year and afterward to say whether he considered waterboarding an illegal form of torture, as do many human rights groups and other critics.
KEEP PRESSING
Leahy vowed to keep pressing Mukasey at Wednesday's hearing.
"This last-minute response from the attorney general echoes what other administration officials have said about the use of waterboarding," he said. "It does not, however, answer the critical questions we have been asking about its legality. Attorney General Mukasey knows that this will not end the matter and expects to be asked serious questions at the hearing."
John Negroponte, the first U.S. director of national intelligence who served from 2005 to 2007, confirmed in a magazine interview published last week that waterboarding had been used in the interrogation program. But Negroponte, now deputy secretary of state, said it was not used during his term as spy chief "nor even a few years before that."
Although the Bush administration has been reluctant to discuss waterboarding publicly, Negroponte's remarks were in line with earlier reports that the CIA discontinued waterboarding in 2003, after using it on three "high-value" detainees.
Mukasey on Jan. 2 ordered the Justice Department to investigate the CIA's destruction of videotapes depicting the harsh interrogations of two terrorism suspects in 2002. At least one of the subjects, Abu Zubaydah, was believed to have been subjected to waterboarding.
Mukasey has rejected calls to appoint an independent counsel for the investigation. He has indicated investigators would be free to pursue evidence of illegal interrogation techniques in their probe, but department officials have said the focus remains on the tapes' destruction.
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Sphere
Piracy fight
Obama visits Jewish shrine
