Mukasey: Bush's New 'Mr. Cover-up' "Durbin noted that retired Major General Antonio Taguba, who was in charge of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse probe, stated recently that “the Commander in Chief and those under him authorized a systematic regime of torture” and that “there is no longer any doubt about whether the current administration committed war crimes, the only question that remains is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held accountable.”
Mukasey, however, responded that anyone who acted in “good faith” and relied on the Justice Department’s legal advice “cannot and should not be prosecuted.” The same protection should cover government lawyers who gave the advice, he said.
“What lawyers have to do is adhere to the law and not concern themselves with what might be politically acceptable later on, and if we go after them and prosecute them, then that’s exactly what they’re going to be concerned with,” Mukasey said.
Mukasey’s point was that the lawyers were adhering to the law – and acting above politics – when they authorized torture, and that politics only entered the picture when someone thought they should be punished for breaking the law."
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