2 Senate Democrats Seek Comey’s Views on Waterboarding
Source: New York Times
In a letter to James B. Comey, President Obama’s nominee for F.B.I. director, two Democratic senators expressed concern on Wednesday about Mr. Comey’s views on waterboarding and his role in approving “enhanced interrogation techniques” while at the Justice Department in the George W. Bush administration.
The senators, Richard J. Durbin of Illinois and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, said they wanted to know Mr. Comey’s position on “an issue of great importance to our nation: torture.” Both senators are on the Judiciary Committee, which is scheduled to hold a confirmation hearing on the nomination on Tuesday.
Their views reflect uneasiness among Senate Democrats about Mr. Comey’s record on the divisive issue of interrogation methods. Both men voted against confirming Mr. Bush’s last attorney general, Michael B. Mukasey, in part because he declined to describe waterboarding as torture.
Their letter asked Mr. Comey to provide written answers to questions about his role at the Bush Justice Department in the authorization of the coercive interrogation methods and about whether he considers waterboarding to be torture. Both Mr. Obama and Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. have said they believe it is torture.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/04/us/politics/2-senate-democrats-seek-comeys-views-on-waterboarding.html
See also "2004 Showdown Shaped Reputation of Pick for F.B.I." from the June 22 Times describing the infamous hospital bed confrontation between then-Assistant AG Comey and the hospitalized regular AG John Ashcroft.
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