Cambodian waterboarding photo by Johah Black from www.davidcorn.com
By Sara Knight, a Guardian intern
Our own Senator Dianne Feinstein announced today that she supports
Bush’s nominee for Attorney General, Michael “waterboarding may or may not be torture” Mukasey.
Due to his equivocating remarks about waterboarding – an interrogation technique that simulates drowning – Mukasey’s nomination was in danger of being stalled in the Judiciary Committee. Now, with Feinstein and Charles Schumer (D-NY) backing Mukasey’s nomination, a full Senate vote is inevitable and will probably result in confirmation.
Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, continues to oppose the Mukasey nomination. “No American should need a classified briefing to determine whether waterboarding is torture.”
Tell that to Mukasey, who hemmed and hawed over that question and ultimately refused to say one way or another.
And what is Feinstein’s justification for supporting Mukasey’s nomination? She and Schumer say the Justice Department is in desperate need of effective leadership.
The Justice Department needs many things, but expanding and exonerating the use of torture by our government under the guise of “effective leadership” is absolutely unacceptable.