And Now Your Right Wing Talking Points on Waterboarding

The Wall Street Journal and the Chicago Tribune are taking Senate Democrats to task for balking to confirm Judge Michael Mukasey as Attorney General. As most y'all know, upon direct questioning from Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Mukasey refused to classify waterboarding as torture. He said it was "repugnant" and awful and yucky and beyond the pale, but would not commit to calling it torture. Yet he also testified that torture is unconstitutional and illegal. So the supposed bind he is in is that if he declares waterboarding torture, he therefore classifies the practice as illegal, subjecting the CIA operatives who used the technique and their supervisors to criminal prosecution.

Both the WSJ and the Trib editorials assume such prosecution would be unfair and unrealistic in the context of doing "anything" to prevent another terrorist attack or to realistically fight the War on Terror (TM). And they blame Democrats for playing verbal games with the poor Judge, following President Bush's line that the Senate is treating his nominee "unfairly". The only credible objection the editorials raise is that Mukasey does not want to comment upon a program he has not been authorized to learn the details about. Fair enough.

But otherwise, bollocks. You don't have to be an expert on criminal interrogation to recognize waterboarding as torture. Democrats are (for once) calling a spade a spade. If Mukasey is going to hem and haw about the program, he can't evade history or expert consensus. If our CIA operatives are breaking the law, let the chips fall where they may. As for the WSJ's dubious contention that the use of waterboarding and other harsh techniques on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was necessary to gain information, Phillipp Carter has argued strongly otherwise:

As a nation, we still haven't clearly decided whether it's better to prosecute terrorists or pound them with artillery. But by torturing some of al-Qaida's leaders, we have completely undermined any efforts to do the former and irreversibly committed ourselves to a martial plan of justice. In the long run, this may be counterproductive, and it will show that we have compromised such liberal, democratic ideals like adherence to the rule of law to counter terrorism. Torture and tribunals do not help America show that it believes in the rule of law. But if CIA officials continue to use tactics that will get evidence thrown out of federal court, there will increasingly be no other option.