MUKASEY: WATERBOARDING WOULD BE TORTURE IF DONE TO ME.

During his first oversight hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday, Attorney General Michael Mukasey refused to say whether waterboarding is torture and should be outlawed, even though he had previously called the tactic "repugnant." While Mukasey declined to give a legal opinion on the matter, Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) asked, "Would waterboarding be torture if it were done to you?" Mukasey replied: "I would feel that it was." Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who voted to confirm Mukasey last November, said he was "disappointed" in Mukasey's hedging on waterboarding. Mukasey did say that a "special Justice Department probe into the destruction of CIA videotapes could be expanded to include whether harsh interrogation tactics depicted on the tapes violated federal anti-torture laws." Mukasey also refused to answer whether President Bush's "Terrorist Surveillance Program" had violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Sen. Arlen Specter explained that the question was a no-brainer because FISA "expressly mandates you have to go to a court to get an order for wiretapping. There's really no dispute about that."

Now, Mukasey is in a pickle...

Durbin to Mukasey: no answers, no deputy.

TPM:

After Michael Mukasey's genially hostile performance yesterday, maybe it's become apparent that genial hostility is the name of the game:

Senate Democrats plan to delay a floor vote on President Bush’s nominee for the No. 2 post at the Justice Department until the department responds to several Judiciary Committee oversight letters.
Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin , D-Ill., said Thursday that the nomination of Mark Filip for deputy attorney general will be “held on the floor” until the panel receives responses, adding that Democrats have notified the department of the demand.

Among the letters that have yet to be answered:

Leahy and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the panel’s top Republican, also wrote to Mukasey and Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell on Dec. 21 asking them to preserve any audio or video recordings of detainee interrogations. The two lawmakers asked Mukasey and McConnell to canvass the government for such recordings and report back to the committee.