Infowars.com
PrisonPlanet.tv
Listen Now
Attorney General Michael Mukasey raised concerns that government agents and national security lawyers may be at risk for criminal prosecution after his likely successor, Eric Holder, declared that waterboarding of terror detainees is torture.
The 67-year-old former federal judge in New York, who took office 14 months ago, said in an interview that the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama faces a “conundrum” as it tries to shut down the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Word that Mr. Obama plans to issue an executive order to close the prison has caused worry among Justice Department lawyers who fear evidence backing the cases against many of the approximately 250 detainees wouldn’t hold up in a conventional court proceeding.
(Article continues below)
Mr. Holder made the torture comment at his confirmation hearing Thursday when asked about the technique, which induces the sensation of drowning and was used by Central Intelligence Agency interrogators on at least three detainees.
The Holder response was in contrast to that of Mr. Mukasey, who declined when asked the same question at his confirmation hearing in 2007. The Justice Department’s office of legal counsel issued legal opinions, later rescinded, that backed the legality of harsh interrogation techniques such as waterboarding. The CIA has said the method hasn’t been used since 2003, but President George W. Bush has opposed congressional efforts to explicitly ban the CIA from ever using it again.
