Word: mukaseyã
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Dates: during 2007-2007
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Both the Justice Department and the House Intelligence Committee have launched investigations, the latter stymied by the former. On Friday, Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey ordered the House intelligence committee to halt its probe for fear that a House investigation would jeopardize that of the Justice Department. Given Mukasey??s refusal to deem one such enhanced interrogation technique, waterboarding, illegal during his confirmation hearings, the Justice Department probe seems likely to shield the Bush administration from censure...
...endorsement of the two Democratic senators has virtually guaranteed Mukasey??s confirmation as attorney general. Had the two voted against him, the nominee would have never made it out of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Instead, they swallowed his characterization of the debate over waterboarding—that is, simulated drowning of an interrogation subject—as merely hypothetical and drooled over his concern for the rule of law. In the process, they did a disservice to the very Justice Department they hope to rebuild...
Schumer praises Mukasey??s “fidelity to the rule of law” as paramount among the reasons he endorsed him. Yet the purpose of the Justice Department is to enforce the law. Respect for the law is surely a basic requirement for any nominee for the highest law enforcement post in the land, not a reason to heap on the accolades...
...Mukasey could only offer a conditional statement on waterboarding at best: “If it amounts to torture, it is not constitutional.” Rather than demonstrate his ability to be “strong and independent,” as Feinstein asserts, Mukasey??s words demonstrate the compatibility of his views with those of the Bush administration. President Bush stated in November 2005 that “We do not torture.” Vice President Dick Cheney said in October 2006, “We don’t torture. That?...
...both practical and ethical reasons, the United States must stop equivocating on torture. If we wish to preserve our values and our reputation abroad, unambiguous statements are needed. Thankfully, Senate Judiciary Committee Charman Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) and other prominent Democrats have vowed to stall Mukasey??s confirmation until he clearly his expresses his opposition to waterboarding. We applaud this decision and hope that our next Attorney General can improve on the dubious human rights record of his predecessor, who once famously characterized the Geneva Convention as “quaint.” Furthermore, presidential candidates should...