After Democrats rescued Mukasey from a showdown on torture and saved his confirmation, they are now reaping the harvest of their work: Mukasey has refused to share any information on the Administration’s investigation of itself. Thus, the man who stated under oath that he did not know what waterboarding was or whether it was torture will now investigate whether evidence of that crime was destroyed.
Mukasey waited until Friday afternoon to deliver his refusal to Congress. Notably, Mukasey has yet to answer questions of whether waterboarding is a crime despite repeated requests.
He further refused to appoint a special prosecutor. In a statement reminiscent of his torture denial, Mukasey stated “I am aware of no facts at present to suggest that department attorneys cannot conduct this inquiry in an impartial manner,.”
So let’s recap:
1. Mukasey refuses under oath to admit that he know what waterboarding is and refuses (once told) to say whether it is torture.
2. Democratic senators then saved him from having to answer the question and guarantee his confirmation — thus avoiding a showdown on whether the president committed the crime of ordering the torture of suspects.
3. Mukasey is confirmed but then fails to answer repeated requests for an answer on the waterboarding question — now that he has been briefed.
4. It is reported that tapes have been destroyed showing the torture of suspects — incriminating the President in a criminal act, various high ranking Administration officials, and a number of Justice Department and CIA officials.
5. Mukasey then says that he cannot see any reason why a special prosecutor should be appointed to investigate.
In the meantime, all of the Democratic leaders continue to frame the question in terms of the destruction of evidence and not the fact that the crime of torture has been confirmed by these officials and witnessed by various officials.
Are we overwrought to worry about such minutiae as perjured Attorney Generals, WH-authorized barbaric tortures (no doubt some leading to death), the destruction of evidence, public lies by the President of the United States to his people concerning the nuclear capabilities of a sovereign nation he was attempting to drum up support for an outright war of aggression, the stationing of industry agents at the helms of all our regulatory agencies, the firing and sacking of career administrators and AG’s for solely political reasons, the conversion of the Department of Justice into a private prosecutorial arm of the Republican Party, the wholesale looting of the public coffers and wealth transfer to crony industrialists, the loss of billions of dollars of the public monies to unenumerated benefactors in Iraq,the total contempt and disregard for the welfare of the populace by the subversion of those constitutional protections that shielded the same, the partisan attack on the governmental process itself, with the blocking of all legislation and the perversion of the Executive decreeing what legislation it will honor and what it will not, the radical and never before seen propounding of the ideas that the Executive is a law unto itself, arrogating to itself the legislative and judicial functions and brooking no impairment of its autocracy through the quaintly antiquated notion of “checks and balances.”, the total contempt and perversion of science and scientific research, the total prostitution to the most extreme partisan and religious factions in the country, the callous disregard for the health safety and welfare of the populace. And so many, many more such items on the long black scroll of this sordid, debased administration.
Why are we so concerned about such trivialities?
The Heartland attends to steroid scandals, celebrity bouts with law enforcement and substance addiction, and of course reality tv. They don’t care a whit of any of this.
There was never any real question that Mukasey knew what waterboarding was when he denied it under oath. Ironically, it is the type of testimony that leads to indictments for many people pulled into perjury traps by the DOJ in terrorism cases. The DOJ will charge you for omitting a telephone number or forgetting a meeting four years earlier, but the AG can claim no knowledge of the primary form of torture used by the Bush Administration (and one of the central issues of the last two years) and be confirmed with the help of leading democrats.
On a different note: one would think Mukasey would have been aware of the OLC Memorandum and Opinion of December 30, 2004 and been able to answer in the affirmative when queried about waterboarding.
It was dismaying and disillusioning to see men of stature like Mukasey and General Hartman dodge and weave and essentially lie to Congress when asked about this odious practice.
Mukasey will likely stonewall all information requests from Congress.
“Could be inconsistent with the President’s constitutional and
statutory authorities to control
access to and protect classified
information, intelligence
sources and methods, sensitive
law enforcement information,
and information the disclosure
of which could otherwise harm
the foreign relations or national
security of the United States.”
They have taken the position that the Executive has NO obligation to respond except voluntarily and as a matter of courtesy, to information requests from Congress. They will take the same tack with subpoenas and contempt citations.
Clearly, Mukasey was not, at the time of his confirmation, and is not now, qualified for the position of Attorney General of the United States.
He is still subject to obvious New York State Bar ROC’s whose negative proceedings, if successful, would put his license in peril which, I believe, is a previous and continuing requisite for the position and non-negotiable.
I’m not convinced you can be in good-standing while you are lying under oath for the highest legal office in the country…
Who would you like me to call?
I have a phone, and I’m no afraid to use it ; )
Thanks, Senators Schumer and Feinstein.