Torturers and enablers: Sadly, Senate panel errs

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http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/nov/07/torturers-and-enablers/

Clint Talbott, for the editorial board
Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Torture is not a partisan issue. One either accepts the rules governing civilized nations or not. Political affiliations are irrelevant. Or so we would hope.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee approved the nomination of Michael B. Mukasey. The 11-8 vote moves Mukasey's nomination to the full Senate, virtually assuring his confirmation, observers said.

One might reasonably ask why Mukasey — described by knowledgeable and decent people as a wise and decent person — could persistently refuse to answer the question of whether "waterboarding" is 1) torture, and, 2) illegal.

In his first appearance in the Senate last month, Mukasey clearly said that torture is illegal. "It is not what this country is all about," he said. "It is not what this country stands for. It's antithetical to everything this country stands for."

Exactly so.

It is an established fact that waterboarding — an interrogation technique that simulates drowning — is torture. It was used during the Inquisition. It was a tool of the genocidal Khmer Rouge. It has long been viewed — and prosecuted — as a war crime.

The United States prosecuted Japanese soldiers who waterboarded American GIs during World War II. As Evan Wallach, a judge at the U.S. Court of International Trade, has noted, American soldiers who waterboarded prisoners have been court martialed. Even today, even under the Bush administration, a U.S. soldier who committed this offense could be court-martialed.