Mukasey: President has final word on waterboarding

Attorney General Michael Mukasey said Wednesday he believed the Justice Department had previously instituted a policy that the president would ultimately decide whether to approve harsh interrogation techniques like waterboarding.

The disclosure could be significant because the Bush administration had previously acknowledged that the simulated drowning technique was used on a handful of people soon after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. If the president gave his endorsement to waterboarding, he may have authorized a practice in violation of anti-torture laws, Democrats say.

{mosads}But Mukasey said he was not authorized to talk about past practices, declining to say whether waterboarding was one of them or whether Bush had any involvement. He insisted that the technique is not part of the current CIA program and would not comment on its legality since he said he would be providing a hypothetical legal analysis.

“Given that waterboarding is not part of the current program and may never be added to the current program, I don't think it would be appropriate for me to pass definitive judgment on the technique's legality,” Mukasey said at his first appearance before Congress since being sworn in as attorney general last fall.

“There are some circumstances where current law would appear clearly to prohibit waterboarding’s use,” Mukasey said. “But other circumstances would present a far closer question.”

That answer hardly satisfied committee Democrats, who have been sharply critical of Mukasey since he declined to state explicitly whether he believed waterboarding was torture during his confirmation hearings last October. The issue nearly derailed his nomination, but he was confirmed on a 53-40 vote — a narrower margin than his controversial predecessor, Alberto Gonzales.

Republicans defended Mukasey and said Democrats are targeting a practice no longer in use in order to score political points.