Congress should outlaw waterboarding at once

By A TIMES EDITORIAL
Published November 6, 2007

The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected today to send the nomination of Michael Mukasey to be attorney general to the Senate floor for a confirmation vote. The nomination appeared imperiled until two Democratic senators, Dianne Feinstein of California and Charles Schumer of New York, broke ranks with their party colleagues on the committee and announced their support for Mukasey despite his refusal to declare "waterboarding" illegal.

The expected confirmation of Mukasey should not be the end of the debate on torture. In salvaging Mukasey's nomination, Feinstein and Schumer urged Congress to stand up to President Bush and approve legislation that once and for all would outlaw waterboarding, or simulated drowning, and other interrogation methods regarded as torture.

In his testimony before the committee, Mukasey called waterboarding "repugnant" but declined to say it was illegal before he has a chance to review Justice Department memos that may have provided legal cover for CIA interrogators who used the technique on suspected al-Qaida leaders after the 9/11 attacks.

Waterboarding is torture, and the United States has prosecuted its enemies for war crimes for using it on American soldiers. Under every conceivable definition but the mangled one put forth by the Bush administration, waterboarding is an illegal practice under the Geneva Conventions and U.S. law.

Mukasey refused to say as much because such an admission could put CIA interrogators and administration officials in legal jeopardy. Already, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeldhad a criminal complaint on torture filed against him by human rights groups last month while he was traveling in France.

Meanwhile, lawmakers need to do more than just denounce torture; they should act to end it once and for all. They should pass legislation sponsored by Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., that would unequivocally outlaw waterboarding and other practices most people would recognize as torture. Biden's proposal would limit interrogation techniques to those authorized by the U. S. Army Field Manual on Intelligence Interrogation. The manual specifically forbids waterboarding.

If members of Congress hated torture as much as their rhetoric suggests, this law would already be on the books.

[Last modified November 5, 2007, 21:20:25]