Psyche, Science, and Society

AG nominee claims not to know torture when he sees it

October 18th, 2007

Yesterday I, and a lot of others, wondered if AG nominee was really against torture. Today we get a clear answer: No. When asked if waterboarding was torture, he replied that he didn’t know. As TPM reports:

 Mukasey has firmly established that he’s against torture — yesterday he even compared it to the Holocaust (see also here).

But what exactly does that mean? Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) asked Mukasey if he thought waterboarding was Constitutional. “If waterboarding is torture… torture is not Constitutional,” he replied.

Whitehouse wasn’t satisfied. “That is a massive hedge…. It either is or it isn’t.” Doesn’t Mukasey have an opinion on whether waterboarding is torture? He went on to describe the technique, which involves using a wet rag to make the detainee feel like he’s drowning. Mukasey replied with the same answer: “If it amounts to torture, then it is not Constitutional.”

I’m very disappointed,” Whitehouse said, adding that Mukasey’s reply had been “purely semantic.”

“Sorry,” replied Mukasey.

If waterboarding isn’t well beyond the pale, then all the rest of the CIA’s “enhanced interrogation techniques” will be judged to be not torture, and, thus legal.

From a legal angle, the talk of “torture” is a softball, allowing these guys to get off easy. The legal threshold for “torture” is fairly high. But many techniques about which controversy exists as to whether they are torture clearly fall within the legally proscribed category of “cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment”, banned by UN Convention,  or those “outrages upon personal dignity” banned by the Geneva Conventions Common Article Three.

A vote for this guy will be, like a vote for Gonzales, a vote for someone dedicated to using word parsing to  protect Bush’s regime of abuse. Shame on Congress for even considering it. It’s  not surprising Congress’ approval is at 11%.

Entry Filed under: Congress, Constitutional Law, International Law, Interrogation, Law, Politics, Torture, War Crimes