Senator Edward Kennedy: “Would waterboarding be torture if it was done to you?”

Attorney General Michael Mukasey: “I would feel that it was.”

Despite that, Mukasey still refuses to answer whether waterboarding is torture and is prohibited. A portrait of George Orwell indeed hangs on his wall at the Department of Justice. Good old doublethink.

See the exchange at TPM Muckraker.

• Reuters: U.S. Attorney General says CIA interrogations legal
• CNN: Attorney General won’t say whether waterboarding is torture
• The Day: Mukasey: No Special Prosecutor Planned [in CIA Torture Tapes Scandal]

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Three main points in Attorney General Mukasey’s letter to Senator Leahy about waterboarding (January 29, 2008):

1) Mukasey thinks torture is okay sometimes (but we have to guess when): “If this were an easy question, I would not be reluctant to offer my views, but with respect, I believe it is not an easy question. There are some circumstances where current law would appear clearly to prohibit the use of waterboarding. Other circumstances would present a far closer question.”

2) Mukasey likes to keep his torture methods secret (legitimate interrogation programs all publish their rules): “Any answer I give could have the effect of articulating publicly — and to our adversaries — the limits and contours of generally worded laws that define the limits of a highly classified interrogation program.”

3) Mukasey thinks waterboarding could be legally approved for use again (torture at the stroke of the presidential pen): “’That process would begin with the C.I.A. director’s determination that the addition of the technique was required for the program. Then the attorney general would have to determine that the use of the technique is lawful under the particular conditions and circumstances proposed. Finally the president would have to approve of the use of the technique.”

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Michael Mukasey: Keeper of the legal apparatus for the commission of war crimes