Mukasey responds to Durbin's letter regarding waterboarding

[sabra]

http://www.newsweek.com/id/108719/page/2

<snip>

But the administration's new openness is not likely to quiet the waterboarding controversy. No sooner had Hayden made his comments yesterday than Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, who has been among the most vocal critics of the administration on the issue, fired off a new letter to Mukasey about the matter. Contending that the United States has "considered waterboarding to be a war crime for decades," Durbin, pointing to Hayden's comments, asked whether the attorney general was now prepared to launch a new Justice Department investigation to determine if any laws were violated. Until he gets an answer to that and other questions, Durbin said, he will block the confirmation of Mark Filip—the federal judge nominated to be Mukasey's successor on the bench. Asked about the Durbin letter, a Justice spokesman said the department was "carefully reviewing" it, declining further comment.

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/02/path_cleared_for_chicago_feder.html#more

Sen. Dick Durbin has cleared the way for Chicago federal judge Mark Filip to receive an up-or-down floor vote in the Senate, and he is expected to be confirmed as the deputy attorney general perhaps as early as Monday.

Durbin, the Senate's majority whip, lifted his hold on Filip's nomination after Atty. Gen. Michael Mukasey responded to Durbin's concerns about the Justice Department's refusal to declare the practice of waterboarding illegal.

Mukasey didn't give Durbin the answers he was looking for; instead, the attorney general declined to open a criminal investigation into whether the department violated the law years ago in authorizing the Central Intelligence Agency to employ waterboarding.

Still, Durbin wrote to Mukasey, that because he had pledged to release his hold on Filip once Mukasey responded, he went ahead and did so.

...


I agree with you that our intelligence professionals should be able to rely in good faith on the Justice Department’s legal advice. However, CIA agents have been put in jeopardy by misguided counsel from the Justice Department, including legal opinions that the Administration has been forced to repudiate. Your refusal to review these opinions, much less investigate those who authorized waterboarding, places CIA agents at risk of receiving similarly flawed advice in the future. Moreover, your continued refusal to repudiate waterboarding does tremendous damage to America’s values and image in the world and places Americans at risk of being subjected to waterboarding by enemy forces.

[wtmusic]

1. Durbin didn't demand a "Why?" answer

so Mukasey was able to slither around it.

[bdamomma]

2. those who support this kind of torture in the administration

should be subjected to it themselves. filthy people.:mad:

[alfredo]

3. "Avoid doing what you would blame others for doing." Thales of Miletos

[VP505]

4. Isn't that special,

Durbin kept his pledge, when will the clowns (Durbin/Reid) start demanding that Mukasey and the Bu$h Admin start keeping their pledge to uphold the Constitution.

[alfredo]

5. My letter to Ben Chandler (D KY)

Mukasey said the CIA doesn't use waterboarding anymore, but waterboarding is just one technique used to torture prisoners. Do we have any assurance that other forms of torture are not being used? When they say the CIA doesn't torture, should we assume they have privatized the torture?

We know bush uses "contractors" to do interrogations. Are those contractors using torture? Please don't take bush's or his underlings word for this. We all know what their word is worth.

[L. Coyote]

6. The slow, steady drip of dark history as it is being written. We live in dark times

and are witnesses to immense crimes.

And these agents of darkness still do not see the light!

[Wizard777]

7. So Mukasey will obstruct Justice for this administraition. n/t

[Wizard777]

8. At what point do we officially call this a coup against the rule of law? n/t