Atty. Gen. Mukasey Says Waterboarding “Would Appear” Illegal

Ariane DeVogue, ABC News

For the first time, Attorney General Michael Mukasey has addressed the issue of whether waterboarding — an interrogation technique that simulates drowning — is illegal. He says that there are some circumstances where current law “would appear clearly to prohibit the use of the technique.”  But in a letter to Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, released hours before Mukasey’s scheduled hearing before that committee, the Attorney General says that “other circumstances would present a far closer question.”   

In the letter Mukasey says that he has been briefed on the CIA interrogation program and has been told that waterboarding is “not currently authorized for use in that program.”

Mukasey does not rule out a scenario that at another point in time waterboarding could again be authorized. The Department of Justice is investigating the destruction of video tapes by the CIA in November 2005 which depicted the use of the controversial technique against a high level detainee. 

(Original Article)