US: Senate Should Reject Mukasey Nomination (Human Rights Watch)

[Eugene]

Source: Human Rights Watch

US: Senate Should Reject Mukasey Nomination

Refusal to Denounce Waterboarding Shows Him
Unfit for Attorney General

(Washington, DC, October 31, 2007) – The United States
Senate should reject Michael Mukasey’s appointment as
attorney general because of his unwillingness to state
that “waterboarding” and other cruel, inhuman and
degrading treatment is illegal, Human Rights Watch
said today.

In response to written questions from the Senate Judiciary
Committee, Mukasey said on Tuesday that waterboarding –
mock drowning prosecuted by the United States as torture
since 1902 – was “repugnant,” but refused to call it illegal.

“Mukasey seems to think he was nominated to be an ethics
professor rather than the nation’s chief law enforcement
officer,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director at Human
Rights Watch. “If he is still unsure whether the horrific
practice of waterboarding is illegal, then he shouldn’t be
confirmed.”

In his 172-page response to Senate Judiciary committee
questions, Mukasey refused to comment on the legality
of any specific interrogation techniques, claiming that it
would be inappropriate to comment on them until he had
been briefed by the Justice Department on “the actual
facts and circumstances” of how they may have been
used. But waterboarding is clearly unlawful regardless of
the circumstances, Human Rights Watch said.

-snip-

Read more: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/10/31/usdom17210.htm

[sam sarrha]

1. he is covering for the civilian ReThugs who have water boarded people, he doesn't

want to set a precedent for fellow ReThugs he might have to prosecute

which makes him complicit in all contractor torture crimes he is protecting