Psyche, Science, and Society

Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey endorses CIA torture

September 23rd, 2007

Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey endorses CIA torture, aka “enhanced interrogations” according to Newsweeks’ Michael Isikoff:

“[I]n a series of private meetings arranged by chief of staff Josh Bolten prior to the nomination, Mukasey, 66, reassured top hard-liners, such as Federalist Society executive Leonard Leo and former A.G. Edwin Meese. According to three sources, who asked not to be named discussing the private meetings, Mukasey said that he saw “significant problems” with shutting down Guantánamo Bay and that he understood the need for the CIA to use some “enhanced” interrogation techniques against Qaeda suspects.”

Yet Democrats are expected to swiftly confirm him. Perhaps support for Bush’s torture regime is a criterion for Democrats to confirm a nominee. After all, they helped confirm Alberto Gonzales despite knowing full well his record in support of torture.

UPDATE:

The New York Times describes Mukasey’s cavalier approach to reports of US citizen detainee beatings and other civil liberties:

It was Oct. 2, 2001, and the prisoner, Osama Awadallah, then a college student in San Diego with no criminal record, was one of dozens of Arab men detained around the country in the days after the Sept. 11 attacks as potential witnesses in the terrorism investigation.

Before the hearing, Mr. Awadallah told his lawyer that he had been beaten in the federal detention center in Manhattan, producing bruises that were hidden beneath his orange prison jumpsuit. But when his lawyer told this to Judge Mukasey, the judge seemed little concerned.

“As far as the claim that he was beaten, I will tell you that he looks fine to me,” said Judge Mukasey….

Even though Mr. Awadallah was not charged at the time with any crime and had friends and family in San Diego who would vouch that he had no terrorist ties, Judge Mukasey ordered that he be held indefinitely, a ruling he made in the cases of several other so-called material witnesses in the Sept. 11 investigations. A prison medical examination later identified the bruises across his body.

Sounds like just the type of guy we want as Attorney General. Now I’m certain the Democrats will rapidly confirm him.

Entry Filed under: Guantanamo, Human Rights, Interrogation, Torture