Mukasy on torture memos: Whoops, sorry about that

[babylonsister]

Mukasey Calls Torture Memo a ‘Mistake’

Filed at 1:08 p.m. ET
Susan Etheridge for The New York Times


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Attorney General-designate Michael Mukasey said Wednesday the president doesn't have the authority to use torture techniques against terrorism suspects, a stance not taken by predecessor Alberto Gonzales and considered key to the nominee's confirmation.

Mukasey repudiated a 2002 memo by then-Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee that said the president has the power to issue orders that violate the Geneva Conventions as well as international and U.S. laws prohibiting torture. The memo was later disavowed and overridden by an executive order on interrogation of terrorism suspects, which allowed harsh questioning but included a vaguely worded ban on cruel and inhuman treatment.

''The Bybee memo, to paraphrase a French diplomat, was worse than a sin, it was a mistake. It was unnecessary,'' Mukasey, 66, told the Senate Judiciary Committee under questioning by Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

Leahy said that he and other senators did not vote for Gonzales in large part because he refused to disavow the Bybee memo.

Mukasey's confirmation was all but assured even before he made the statement at the top of proceedings on whether to confirm him as the nation's 81st attorney general. Democrats from Majority Leader Harry Reid and Leahy on down long have predicted easy and quick Senate approval.

President Bush urged Leahy's committee to endorse Mukasey's nomination in the next few days and the full Senate to confirm him next week. But committee rules would prohibit a vote on the nomination until at least next week.

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Senate-Attorney-General.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[Solly Mack]

1. yet another "mistake"

fuck these people