Mukasey Waffles on Waterboarding

Terrorism

Posted Jan 30, 2008, 01:38 pm CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss

Updated: Attorney General Michael Mukasey is giving a “lawyerly response” to a Senate Judiciary Committee request for an opinion on waterboarding, the Washington Post reports.

Mukasey wrote in a letter delivered late yesterday that the legal question is not an easy one, the New York Times reports.

“There are some circumstances where current law would appear clearly to prohibit the use of waterboarding,” he wrote. “Other circumstances would present a far closer question.”

Mukasey echoed those words in committee testimony today, the Washington Post reports. "If this were an easy question, I would not be reluctant to offer my views on the subject," he said. "But with respect, this is not an easy question."

Mukasey said the CIA no longer uses the interrogation method, which simulates drowning, so that it is not necessary for him to provide a clear answer on the legality of the technique. Current interrogation methods used in the questioning of terrorist suspects are legal, he added.

Mukasey also refused to say whether it would be illegal for a foreign country to subject a U.S. citizen to waterboarding, the Post report says.

Mukasey's letter, delivered last night, suggested that the use of waterboarding against terrorism suspects could be reintroduced under the “defined process by which any new method is proposed for authorization,” the Times story said.

Story was originally posted at 9:47 AM on 01-30-2008 and updated at 1:35 PM on 01-30-2008.

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