There’s an old joke about the lazy hillbilly with the leaky roof. When it’s raining, he shrugs and says he can hardly go up and patch the roof in the rain. And when it’s not raining — well, then the roof isn’t leaking, so what’s the point?
That seems to be the attitude of the Bush Administration on the whole question of waterboarding. Is it torture, and thus illegal (not to mention immoral)? Well, back when we were doing it, it wasn’t something that could be talked about because it was Top Secret. Now that we’re officially not doing it — well, there’s no point in talking about it any more, right?
The US attorney general, Michael Mukasey, today refused to say whether waterboarding was torture – the second time he has stonewalled on the issue in the face of questions from Democratic senators.
When Mukasey took the same stance last October it briefly threatened to derail his confirmation as attorney general until he assured Democrats in the senate that he would review the legality of the controversial interrogation tactic and report back.
But before the US senate judiciary committee today, Mukasey said he would not rule on whether it was a form of illegal torture because it was not part of the current interrogation methods used by the CIA on terror suspects. He said current interrogation methods were lawful.
“Given that waterboarding is not part of the current programme, and may never be added to the programme, I do not think it would be appropriate for me to pass definitive judgment on the technique’s legality,” he said.
Nothing to see here … move along …
Thank you Ken Salazar!