\nThe US attorney general, Michael Mukasey, today refused to say whether waterboarding was torture – the second time he has stonewalled on the issue in the face of questions from Democratic senators.<\/p>\n
When Mukasey took the same stance last October it briefly threatened to derail his confirmation as attorney general until he assured Democrats in the senate that he would review the legality of the controversial interrogation tactic and report back.<\/p>\n
But before the US senate judiciary committee today, Mukasey said he would not rule on whether it was a form of illegal torture because it was not part of the current interrogation methods used by the CIA on terror suspects. He said current interrogation methods were lawful. <\/p>\n
“Given that waterboarding is not part of the current programme, and may never be added to the programme, I do not think it would be appropriate for me to pass definitive judgment on the technique’s legality,” he said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
<\/p>\n
Nothing to see here … move along …<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There’s an old joke about the lazy hillbilly with the leaky roof. When it’s raining, he shrugs and says he can hardly go up and patch the roof in the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,17,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitical-brouhaha","category-homeland-security","category-politics-law"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12168,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/10\/31\/an_appropriately_horrifyi.html","url_meta":{"origin":11803,"position":0},"title":"An appropriately horrifying Halloween topic","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 31-Oct-07 7:42pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Torture. Bush's Attorney General \u00a0nominee, Michael Mukasey, hailed as \"Oh my God, after an ideologue like John Ashcroft and an incompetent stooge like Alberto Gonzalez the next best thing to...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11728,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/02\/14\/mccain_votes_against_tort.html","url_meta":{"origin":11803,"position":1},"title":"McCain votes against torture ban","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 14-Feb-08 8:57pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Sen. McCain has a long rep, since his days as a POW in Vietnam, as a staunch opponent of torture, though there's been a large dollop of public relations covering...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2008"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2008","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2008"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":48992,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/12\/16\/questions-of-dubious-utility-and-morality.html","url_meta":{"origin":11803,"position":2},"title":"Questions of dubious utility (and morality)","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 16-Dec-14 5:36pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Yup. This. Pretty much. Originally shared by +Brad Dillon: #torture #torturepractices #torturereport #waterboarding \u00a0 View on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/10479741_919496304734846_2581327329499079623_n.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/10479741_919496304734846_2581327329499079623_n.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/10479741_919496304734846_2581327329499079623_n.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":129664,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/07\/because-torture-is-cool-now.html","url_meta":{"origin":11803,"position":3},"title":"Because torture is cool now","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 7-Feb-16 8:53pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Not sure which answer was the worst:1. Trump: Waterboarding is so wimpy, I'd really torture their asses.2. Cruz: No, no, waterboarding is not torture. But we won't do it under my watch. Much.3. Jeb!: It was never really used much by my brother, and Congress has changed the law now,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49003,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/12\/17\/and-theyll-know-we-are-christians-by-our-waterboarding.html","url_meta":{"origin":11803,"position":4},"title":"And They'll Know We Are Christians By Our Waterboarding","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 17-Dec-14 1:44pm","format":false,"excerpt":"That WaPo\/ABC Poll mentioned earlier today had some other interesting bits in it: Christians are much more supportive of torture by the CIA than Non-Religious.http:\/\/religiondispatches.org\/christians-more-supportive-of-torture-than-non-religious-americans\/Now, I don't think that necessarily means that American Christians (except Bryan Fischer) actually believe that torture is a good and godly thing to do. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Inquisition.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Inquisition.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Inquisition.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":132658,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/26\/bring-on-the-torture-again.html","url_meta":{"origin":11803,"position":5},"title":"Bring on the Torture (again)!","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 26-Jan-17 12:40pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Donald Trump is sure that torture works (no matter what the experts-shmexperts say!) and is sure that waterboarding is just fine and would be happy to let the US start doing it again in a heartbeat -- if the CIA and Pentagon ask him to.As in the past, I will\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11803\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}