[Peace-discuss] Fwd: "Stop Torture" makes a forward step

[Barbara kessel]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Barbara kessel <barkes at gmail.com>
Date: Oct 26, 2007 1:04 PM
Subject: "Stop Torture" makes a forward step
To: Jay Mittenthal <mitten at life.uiuc.edu>, Carrie Melin
<melin at mailcan.com>, Charlotte Green <chgreen48 at yahoo.com>, Bobbi
Trist <bstrist at prairienet.org>, Don Chenowth <dwchenoweth at att.net>,
Buz Bailey <MBBailey at uillinois.edu>, Joan Nelshoppen
<jnelshoppen at insightbb.com>, Cam Satterthwaite <csattert at uiuc.edu>,
Rebecca Rohloff <rrohloff at uiuc.edu>, Mike Mulberry
<mike at community-ucc.org>,  Bryan Miller <bgmiller at eiu.edu>
Cc: Jacqueline Hannah <jzwhannah at gmail.com>, Linda Weber
<lweber0311 at insightbb.com>, Nancy Stagg <nsstagg at sbcglobal.net>,
Stephen Cox <coxsg at sbcglobal.net>, Eric Jakobssen
<jake at ncsa.uiuc.edu>, Earl Kellogg <earlkellogg at yahoo.com>, Dan
Schreiber <schreiber64 at gmail.com>, Karen Medina <kmedina at uiuc.edu>,
Sadia Bekal <sbekal at uiuc.edu>, COLLEEN VOJAK <vojak at uiuc.edu>, Paul
Hixson <pch at uiuc.edu>, Jennifer Hixson <jhixson at usd116.org>


PLEASE CALL SENATOR DURBIN AND ENCOURAGE HIM IN THIS STAND ON TORTURE.
His Washington office is (202) 224-2152 and his Springfield office is
(217) 492-406. You can do this on Monday if you don't have time today.

Mukasey's Nomination Runs Into Trouble
    The Associated Press

    Thursday 25 October 2007

    Washington - Judge Michael Mukasey's nomination for attorney
general ran into trouble Thursday when two top Senate Democrats said
their votes hinge on whether he will say on the record that an
interrogation technique that simulates drowning is torture.

    "It's fair to say my vote would depend on him answering that
question," Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., told
reporters Thursday.

    THIS TO ME IS THE SEMINAL ISSUE," said Senate Majority Whip DICK
DURBIN of Illinois, another member of Leahy's panel. Asked if HIS VOTE
depends on whether Mukasey equates waterboarding with torture, Durbin
answered: "IT DOES."

    Leahy has refused to set a date for a vote on Mukasey's nomination
until he clarifies his answer to that question.

    Separately, a Democrat familiar with the panel's deliberations
said Mukasey may not get the 10 committee votes his nomination needs
to be reported to the Senate floor with a favorable recommendation
unless he says, in effect, that waterboarding is torture. The official
spoke on condition of anonymity in order to speak more freely.

    Mukasey's confirmation shifted away from being a virtual certainty
last week when he refused to say explicitly whether waterboarding
amounts to torture and is unconstitutional.

    Others in the Senate won't go that far, and no one said Mukasey's
confirmation was in doubt unless he answered the question the way many
Democrats want him to. Only one lawmaker, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.,
has announced he will vote against Mukasey's confirmation in part over
his answer on torture.

    On the second and final day of his confirmation hearings last
week, Mukasey refused to say that waterboarding is torture,
frustrating senators with no tolerance for legalistic hedging after
dozens of non-answers on that and other subjects by the man Mukasey
would succeed, Alberto Gonzales.

    "It is not constitutional for the United States to engage in
torture in any form, be it waterboarding or anything else," Mukasey
answered at one point.

    But during terse questioning by Whitehouse, Mukasey said he did
not know if waterboarding is torture because he is not familiar with
how it is done.

    "That's a massive hedge," Whitehouse responded incredulously. "It
either is or it isn't."

    "If it amounts to torture, it is not constitutional," Mukasey answered.

    "I'm very disappointed in that answer," Whitehouse said. "I think
it is purely semantic."

    Committee members of both parties quickly demanded that Mukasey
answer the question, and Leahy has refused to set a date for the panel
to vote on the nomination until he does.

    "I believe it is necessary for you to respond in detail as to your
views on the legality and propriety of water-boarding and the
appropriate scope of interrogation under U.S. law and the Geneva
Convention," ranking Republican Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania wrote to
Mukasey this week.

    Congress has prohibited cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of
terror suspects, that lawmakers have said includes waterboarding. The
Bush administration has refused to say whether waterboarding is among
the interrogation techniques prohibited in an executive order last
summer.

    But it's not just Democrats whose support wobbled after the
confirmation hearings last week.

    Leahy said he advised White House adviser Harold Kim, who is
handling the nomination, that Mukasey should answer the question
plainly when he submits follow-up responses to the committee.

    "I've heard from a couple of Republicans on the committee and that
they're extremely troubled," Leahy told reporters Thursday after a
Senate vote.

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