Holder Says Waterboarding is Torture
Attorney general nominee Eric Holder told senators in no uncertain terms at his confirmation hearing today that waterboarding is torture.
Holder spoke in response to a question by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, reports The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times. “I agree with you, chairman, that waterboarding is torture,” Holder said.
Current Attorney General Michael Mukasey wasn’t as straightforward when he was asked the waterboarding question. “There are some circumstances where current law would appear clearly to prohibit the use of waterboarding,” Mukasey said in a written response to the Senate Judiciary Committee. “Other circumstances would present a far closer question.”
The CIA has used waterboarding, which simulates drowning, in interrogations of at least three terrorism suspects, the Associated Press reports.
Holder’s waterboarding answer “sent a wave of approval through the public viewing gallery” where protesters held signs calling for an end to torture, the AP wrote.
Holder also said U.S. officials could be held responsible for transferring detainees to foreign governments that torture, the BLT report says. And he said that interrogations conducted during the Obama administration would be consistent with treaty obligations.
Holder also said he made mistakes in his conduct regarding the pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich, according to a live blog account by the New York Times. The account says Holder was “nearly leaping at the chance to admit that, yes, he made mistakes in dealing with the pardon.”
Holder said he will be a better attorney general because he learned from his mistakes.
Holder adopted a conciliatory tone in his opening statement, saying his decisions were not always perfect when he served in the Department of Justice under Attorney General Janet Reno.
