Associated Press
October 28, 2007
WASHINGTON - A Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee
said Sunday he might consider opposing Michael Mukasey's
nomination for attorney general if the former judge says
waterboarding is not torture.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., joined two top Senate Democrats
in urging Mukasey to disclose his views. Mukasey so far has
refused to say explicitly what his position is on the lawfulness
of the interrogation technique, which simulates drowning.
"I am urging him that he needs to come forward. If he
does not believe that waterboarding is illegal, then that would
really put doubts in my own mind because I don't think you
have to have a lot of knowledge about the law to understand
this technique violates" the Geneva Convention and other
statutes, Graham said.
He was responding to a question in a broadcast interview about
whether he would vote against Mukasey should he fail to reveal
his views.
"I think it would serve the attorney general nominee
well to embrace that concept. He's talked around it," Graham
added.
Last week, the committee chairman, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.,
and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois, another committee
member, said their votes would hinge on whether Mukasey states
his answer on the record.
Leahy has refused to set a date for a vote on Mukasey's nomination
until he clarifies his answer to that question.
Also Sunday, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said the waterboarding
issue was an important one as he decides whether to support
Mukasey's nomination.
"Anyone who says they don't know if waterboarding is
torture or not has no experience in the conduct of warfare
and national security," said McCain, a 2008 presidential
candidate and a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
"It isn't about an interrogation technique," he
added. "It isn't about whether someone is really harmed
or not. It's about what kind of a nation we are. We are a nation
that takes the moral high ground."
Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd, who is seeking the Democratic
presidential nomination, said he would oppose Mukasey because
of the nominee's legal views.
"Mr. Mukasey's position that the president does not have
to heed the law disqualifies him from being the chief attorney
for the United States," Dodd said in a statement.
Graham appeared on CBS' "Face the Nation," McCain
was on ABC's "This Week" and Dodd was on "Meet
the Press" on NBC.
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