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A Vote for
Mukasey Is a Vote for Torture
By Amy Goodman
11/06/07 "ICH"
-- - Judge Michael Mukasey admits waterboarding is
repugnant, but refuses to say whether it amounts to torture. Yet
Democratic Sens. Charles Schumer and Dianne Feinstein voted for
his confirmation as U.S. attorney general anyway. Mukasey,
Schumer and Feinstein should talk to French journalist Henri
Alleg. An editor of a paper in Algeria, he was waterboarded by
the French military in 1957, when the French were trying to
crush the Algerian independence movement. The 86-year-old
journalist spoke to me from his home in Paris:
“I was put on a plank, on a board, fastened to it and taken to a
tap [water faucet]. And my face was covered with a rag. Very
quickly, the rag was completely full of water. You have the
impression of being drowned. And the water ran all over my face.
I couldn’t breathe. It’s a terrible, terrible impression of
torture and of death, being near death.”
Journalist Stephen Grey, whose documentary “Extraordinary
Rendition” airs on PBS stations this week, told me: “I, like
many journalists, should issue a correction, an apology really,
because we all reported waterboarding as a simulated drowning.
It is clear from those who did it, this is actual drowning ...
this is something that shocks the conscience and therefore is
torture.”
In a remarkable demonstration of commitment to his job, former
acting Assistant Attorney General Daniel Levin, according to ABC
News, underwent waterboarding when tasked by the White House to
rework its official position on torture in 2004. Concluding that
waterboarding is torture, he was forced out of his job.
On Monday, Nov. 5, anti-torture activists engaged in an actual
demonstration of waterboarding outside the Department of
Justice. Twenty-six-year-old actor Maboud Ebrahimzadeh
volunteered to be the victim. After the session, he was near
tears: “It is the most terrifying experience I have ever had.
And although this is a controlled environment, when water goes
into your lungs and you want to scream and you cannot, as soon
as you do you will choke.”
Four retired military judge advocates general wrote a letter to
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy stating,
“Waterboarding is inhumane, it is torture, and it is illegal.”
Twenty-four former intelligence agents and analysts agreed with
the JAGs, adding, “Whether or not the practice is currently in
use by U.S. intelligence, it should in fact be easy for him to
respond.”
Yet Mukasey told the Senate Judiciary Committee, “I don’t know
what’s involved in the technique, if waterboarding is torture.”
In the Judiciary hearing when the votes were cast, Leahy said:
“No senator should abet this administration’s legalistic
obfuscations by those such as Alberto Gonzales, John Yoo and
David Addington by agreeing that the laws on the books do not
already make waterboarding illegal. We have been prosecuting
water torture for more than 100 years.”
U.S. soldiers have been prosecuted for participating in
waterboarding in the Philippines in 1901 and Vietnam in 1968.
The U.S. imprisoned a Japanese officer in 1947 for using
waterboarding against U.S. troops in World War II.
Sen. Edward Kennedy added: “Make no mistake about it:
Waterboarding is already illegal under United States law. It is
illegal under the Geneva Conventions, which prohibit ‘outrages
upon personal dignity,’ including cruel, humiliating and
degrading treatment. It is illegal under the Torture Act, which
prohibits acts ‘specifically intended to inflict severe physical
or mental pain or suffering.’ It is illegal under the Detainee
Treatment Act, which prohibits ‘cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment.’ And it violates the Constitution.” He went on:
“Waterboarding is slow-motion suffocation with enough time to
contemplate the inevitability of blackout and expiration—usually
the person goes into hysterics on the board. For the
uninitiated, it is horrifying to watch, and if it goes wrong, it
can lead straight to terminal hypoxia. When done right, it is
controlled death.”
Republican Sen. Arlen Specter, who voted for Mukasey’s
confirmation, said Congress should pass a law forbidding
waterboarding, having received assurances from Mukasey that he
would uphold such a law. What if President Bush vetoed the law,
or if he issued one of his signing statements used to sidestep
bills he signs into law?
Despite all this, Schumer’s and Feinstein’s votes for Mukasey
mean the Judiciary Committee has voted 11 to 8 to recommend his
appointment as attorney general to the full Senate. From war
funding to torture, you have to ask, If the Republicans were in
the majority, would there be any difference?
Now only the full Senate can block Mukasey’s appointment. Maybe
at least one senator will step up and filibuster the
confirmation, just long enough for Mukasey to research and
announce his opinion on whether waterboarding amounts to
torture. If a U.S. citizen, soldier or official were
waterboarded somewhere overseas, would Americans hesitate for a
moment to call it torture? A filibuster might give the Mukasey
supporters like Schumer and Feinstein pause to reconsider. For
starters, they should talk to Henri Alleg.
Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!,” a daily
international TV/radio news hour airing on 500 stations in North
America.
© 2007 Amy Goodman
Distributed by King Features Syndicate
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