Attorney General
Mukasey Suggests CIA Tape Probe Could Expand
Posted Jan 31, 2008, 06:19 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Attorney General Michael Mukasey disappointed some senators when he waffled on whether waterboarding is illegal at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing yesterday, but he offered a small concession when he indicated an interrogation tapes probe could widen, the Washington Post reports.
Mukasey’s remarks offered a hint that the probe into the destruction of CIA interrogation videotapes could expand to examine whether the tactics used violated federal anti-torture laws, the article says.
“There is an ongoing investigation into the destruction of the tapes that may well disclose what was on them," Mukasey said. "And it may also well disclose whether it was anything further to be investigated. I think we ought to await that." He said the prosecutor investigating the case "is going to follow it where it leads, and that means wherever it leads."
Mukasey also gave a personal view of waterboarding in response to a question by Sen. Edward Kennedy. The senator asked, “Would waterboarding be torture if it was done to you?”
“I would feel that it was,” Muksasey said. But he qualified his answer, saying his feelings do not make waterboarding illegal. "This is an issue on which people of equal intelligence and equal good faith and equal vehemence have differed and have differed within this chamber," he said.
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