by James Oliphant
Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin today demanded that Atty. Gen Michael Mukasey open a criminal probe into whether CIA officials broke the law in employing the interrogation technique known as waterboarding on three suspected terrorists.
Durbin, the Senate majority whip, says he will continue to hold up a confirmation vote on Chicago federal judge Mark Filip as the deputy attorney general until he receives a satisfactory response from Mukasey.
Durbin's request comes after CIA director Michael Hayden told a congressional committee today that waterboarding had only been used "only three detainees." Last week, Mukasey appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee and said he would not flatly declare waterboarding to be illegal, but said he indicated there were some circumstances where it could be.
In a letter to Mukasey, Durbin wrote:
In light of your testimony that, “There are circumstances where waterboarding is clearly unlawful,” the Justice Department should investigate the instances in which the Administration has used waterboarding to determine whether any laws were violated. You suggested during last week’s hearing that you would not investigate these incidents because waterboarding was authorized by the Administration: “It’s a question of telling agents out there that we are investigating the CIA based on speculation about what happened and whether they got proper authorizations.” Needless to say, a Justice Department investigation should explore whether waterboarding was authorized and whether those who authorized it violated the law. Please respond to this question: Will the Justice Department investigate the Administration’s use of waterboarding to determine whether any laws were violated?
Durbin also wants responses from Mukasey on a host of other torture-related inquiries.
The senator wrote that he respects Judge Filip and does not object to his "continued public service" but at some point Mukasey "must accept his responsibility under our Constitution to acknowledge the role of Congress.”
Tension between the Senate and the Justice Department has been rising ever since Mukasey testified at his confirmation hearing that he wouldn't condemn waterboarding as illegal torture. Judiciary Committee members such as Durbin hoped Mukasey would have a better relationship with the committee than his predecessor, Alberto Gonzales, but those hopes seem to be deteriorating.
The rancor over torture comes as the Senate this afternoon is addressing another front in the war against terrorism. Senators are currently debating amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act on the floor of the chamber. The debate involves whether to make permanent expanding wiretapping powers that have been given to the government on a temporary basis and whether to provide large telecom companies with civil immunity for aiding the government in wiretapping requests after 9/11.
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Comments
"MUKASEY SPEASK TO CONGRESS"
UM. UM. UM. UM. UM. WELL I THINK, UM. UM. UM. UM. UM.
IF HE WAS BLACK MAN FROM THE WEST, THEN IT WOULD BE WATERBOARDING, AS THEY DON'T KNOW HOW TO SWIM.
BUT IF I LAST CHECKED THE THREE WE WATERBORDED OR TORTURED WERE BROWN SKIN FROM SOMEWHERE ELSE.
THE NEWS REPORTER, WELL, THAT IS AN ONGOING INVESTIGATION AND OUR ADMINISTRATION DOESN'T DISCUSS ONGOING INVESTIGATIONS IN RELATIONSHIP TO GEORGE BUSH, DICK CHENEY OR ANY OF THIS MEN.
SO SENATOR, UM. UM...UM...UM...UM...
ONE THOUSAND "UM'S" MEANS THIS ATTORNEY CAN'T BE A DEFENSE ATTORNEY AND A PROSECUTING ATTORNEY AT THE SAME TIME. HE IS NOT WILLING TO HOLD "THESE MEN" TO THE LETTER OF THE LAW.
IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION PROSECUTIONS AS THE "SECRETARY" NEEDS MORE TO JUSTIFY HIS NEW "STATE GRANT PROGRAMS"
MR. UM MUKASEY HAS SPOKEN.
MAYBE THIS IS WHY GEORGE BUSH WANTS TO DECREASE DOJ FUNDING BY 200 MILLION DOLLARS.
Posted by: Roger Morris | February 5, 2008 5:54 PM
I can see the Dick Turbin comments by weak knee John D already. Paula too. But wait, even John McCain is against torture and waterboarding is certainly TORTURE. Kudos to Sen. Dick Durbin from the great state of Illinois. Thanks for defending America's good name. Something the Bush administration has trashed. God Bless America.
DeOppressoLiber
Posted by: Logic Prisoner | February 5, 2008 6:54 PM
So does this mean waterboarding is "legal" now?
I can think of a couple of guys who have some answering to do to the Amercan people right about now.
Starting with this idiot:
http://photobucket.com/mediadetail/?media=http%3A%2F%2Fi221.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fdd113%2Flamepandp%2Ftorture.jpg&searchTerm=torture&pageOffset=6
Posted by: John E | February 5, 2008 7:23 PM
re. waterboarding: OK the warning shot has been fired across the bow... It will henceforth be relegated to a more distant back burner of interrogation techniques than it already was. I think that is a safe place to keep it stored, but not eliminated always and forever.
Posted by: Nancy Bouchard | February 5, 2008 9:31 PM
Investigate, then impeach, our-soldiers-are-Nazis Durbin.
Posted by: Patton | February 5, 2008 11:16 PM
Only the famed Nazi hunter could get to the bottom of this!
Posted by: Jeff | February 6, 2008 12:47 AM
During a speech Tuesday, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat quoted from an FBI agent's report describing detainees at the Naval base in Guantanamo Bay as being chained to the floor without food or water in extreme temperatures.
"If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime _ Pol Pot or others _ that had no concern for human beings," Durbin said.
You'd think our torture fans here would be proud that the Bush Administration can be compared to these experts in the field
Posted by: Anonymous | February 6, 2008 2:50 AM
Only the famed Nazi hunter could get to the bottom of this!
Posted by: Jeff | February 6, 2008 12:47 AM
Interesting, college Republican Jeff. Your hero is against torture (correctly) because he really knows what torture is about. And you still can't resist being being a smirking little twit about anyone else who is against torture. Of course it will always be academic to you because you will never defend your country in the military. You are too much needed as a soldier in the war of words against your fellow citizens.
Posted by: chimpymcflightsuit'snavigator | February 6, 2008 8:22 AM
Vo-Tech democrat chimpy, john e., or whatever you're calling yourself on this particular day,
Dick Turbin has absolutely zero credibility on the subject. He should leave military matters to senators who know what they're talking about such as McCain, Lindsey Graham or John Kerry.
I'm as against torture as the next person, but with his stupid media statements and insipid one-side only rhetoric Turbin has shown he can't be trusted to look out for our soldiers well being or to investigate matters pertaining to the war on terror. The man simply has no credibility. When you untruthfully denigrate this nation's soldiers on the senate floor you give up any right to investigate them.
Posted by: Jeff | February 6, 2008 10:51 AM
Investigate, then impeach, our-soldiers-are-Nazis Durbin.
Posted by: Patton | February 5, 2008 11:16 PM
Get back in your hole old man. Waterboarding is torture. End of story.
Posted by: Bush/Cheney/Impeach/Imprison | February 6, 2008 11:50 AM
I'm as against torture as the next person, but with his stupid media statements and insipid one-side only rhetoric Turbin has shown he can't be trusted to look out for our soldiers well being or to investigate matters pertaining to the war on terror. The man simply has no credibility. When you untruthfully denigrate this nation's soldiers on the senate floor you give up any right to investigate them.
Posted by: Jeff | February 6, 2008 10:51 AM
You can't have it both ways, Bill,Jeff, Tucker Carlson or whatever you are calling yourself these days. If no one will talk about what is happening, nothing will change. If Americans are made of better stuff than others (And I think they are.)they should speak up when America does something wrong. The behavior of SOME soldiers was reprehensible. That's why they were court martialed and found guilty. Shut off your outraged-o-meter and stop being such a tool.
Posted by: chimpymcflightsuit'snavigator | February 6, 2008 1:25 PM
Actually chimpy, I've always gone by Jeff. I've told you 800 times that I'm not Bill who you seem to think I am, but whatever. And I've never gone by Tucker Carlson. I don't even watch his show.
You need to reread the item and educate yourself. None of Dick Turbin's accusations are about Abu Graib. They're about the something the CIA did to three high value terrorists in someplace that Dick Turbin doesn't even know about. Some sources, huh?
I suspect this will all blow over just like the faked "flushed Koran" that CNN got the story wrong on.
Either way, this was supposedly done by CIA personnel, not soldiers. No one has been court martialed, none have been found guilty of anything. You can't even court martial a CIA operative even if you could prove they existed!
You can't investigate something that there's no evidence of. Period. It's called espionage. Happens all the time. If evidence of it came out all governments involved would disavow knowlege that any of it ever happened. I know in your fantasy world the terrorists don't use down syndrom victims as human bombs and bad things never happen, but try to deal with reality, okay? These were spooks, not soldiers.
Posted by: Jeff | February 6, 2008 3:06 PM
You need to reread the item and educate yourself. None of Dick Turbin's accusations are about Abu Graib. They're about the something the CIA did to three high value terrorists in someplace that Dick Turbin doesn't even know about. Some sources, huh?
Posted by: Jeff | February 6, 2008 3:06 PM
Blah,blah,blah!!
If this isn't more of your reichwing bull then link to an actual story. Not a Poltico or Newsmax digest of a story, either.
By the way, you better notify the Swamp webmaster about some guy named Bill that was using your email address about a year and half ago.
Posted by: chimpymcflightsuit'snavigator | February 6, 2008 8:56 PM
Mukasey's job is to imprison felons, and if he won't prosecute torturers he needs to be out of that office.
Bush and Cheney need to be impeached and removed from office for authorizing felonies. Then they need to be prosecuted criminally and sent to prison.
Posted by: Tom in California | February 7, 2008 6:37 PM