Mukasey Refuses To Brief Congress On Legality Of CIA Torture Program
Mukasey Refuses To Brief Congress On Legality Of CIA Torture Program
In December, Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) asked Attorney General Mike Mukasey for his analysis of the legality of the CIA’s interrogation program. Yesterday, in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Mukasey said he believes the current CIA interrogation program is legal.
But in today’s hearing, Mukasey said he could not brief Congress on its legality. Mukasey said his views were embodied in classified letters which could not be disclosed. “Those letters are classified. … I think what you’ve asked me to do is to go and do something different than what’s in the letters, and I will not do that,” he said. Feingold continued:
FEINGOLD: You won’t come to Congress and explain your view of the legality of the details of program?
MUKASEY: The view that I have of the details of the program is embodied in classified letters, which I have reviewed and found to to comply with the law. They explain it. They explain it far beyond my ability to do it in a…session with Congress.
Watch it:
Mukasey claimed he would need “the authorities in hand” in a session to adequately brief Congress. But as Feingold explained, a classified setting before Congress would include this.
Feingold slammed Mukasey for contradicting the openness he portrayed in his confirmation hearings. “This seems somewhat unacceptable. … It is important for us to have more than just a one way conversation about this … I’d urge you to reconsider.”
Marty Lederman writes: “The scope and application of this federal law is so secret that not even the legislators who enacted it can be permitted to understand it. Short version: Congress can take a hike.”
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Memo to all administration lackeys conferring with congress:
Don’t forget to end your conversation with a hearty
‘Go FU(K yourselves’!
January 30th, 2008 at 1:57 pmHow about we waterboard AG Mukasey until he agrees to appear and conduct the brief?
It would give him incentive, and would help him in deciding if he would define waterboarding as torture!
January 30th, 2008 at 1:57 pmUm…his VIEWS are classified? Why does this sound like something coming from Colonel Flagg on M*A*S*H?
January 30th, 2008 at 1:57 pmhere is the perfect solution, write hundreds of letters and be sure to use please a lot… this seems to be very effective.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:58 pmWe can all thank Schumer & Feinstein for this BS. They voted FOR this phuckwad saying”this is the best nominee we can expect from Bush.” We really DO get the government we deserve.
January 30th, 2008 at 2:03 pmonly somewhat related, but, you gotta know this too:
Bush authorizes the NSA to police the Internet–but it’ll be AT&T doing the policing
By: Nicole Belle @ 10:29 AM – PST
Want to know why getting that retroactive telecom immunity is so important to Bush? It’s not just about tapping phone calls.
Scholars & Rogues:
Following up on my post from a little while back discussing Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell’s desire to police the Internet, the Washington Post’s Ellen Nakashima confirmed last weekend that the Decider had signed a classified directive authorizing the NSA to more expansively monitor intrusions on federal networks for signs of cyberattacks:
January 30th, 2008 at 2:03 pm[...]
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/01/30/bush-authorizes-the-nsa-to-police-the-internet–but-it’ll-be-att-doing-the-policing/
.
Bush traded up the dense and dishonest Gonzales for a savvy and crafty Mukasey.
Same results.
-GSD
January 30th, 2008 at 2:10 pmIt’s time to stop “urging” them, it’s time to stop “inquiring” of them, it’s time to stop “asking” them, and it;’s time to start demanding answers fo them or face Contempt of Congress charges and, wait for it, impeachment and removal from office! Stop using the excuse that they will all be gone in less than a year. By the time they are done, the “United States of America” will be gone, only to be replaced by “USA, Inc, LLC”.
January 30th, 2008 at 2:15 pmcan we impeach this bastard?
January 30th, 2008 at 2:22 pm“Short version: Congress can take a hike.â€
And the Democratic Leadership grovels on the floor saying, “Thank you, we need the exercise. Scratch my tummy again.”
January 30th, 2008 at 2:24 pmI’ve got some thoughts on Mukasey over on my blog….
Cheers,
P.S.: Thanks loads, Chucky and Dianne, for this travesty….
January 30th, 2008 at 2:25 pmMUKASEY: The view that I have of the details of the program is embodied in classified letters, which I have reviewed and found to to comply with the law. They explain it. They explain it far beyond my ability to do it in a…session with Congress.
Well then maybe you need a few days in a jail cell to think about it.
January 30th, 2008 at 2:25 pmMukasey = A slightly more articulate Gonzales
Thanks Diane and Chuck.
January 30th, 2008 at 2:33 pmlock him up. Does contempt mean anything to these puppets?
January 30th, 2008 at 2:34 pmMukasey = A slightly more articulate Gonzales
Comment by bilbobaggins — January 30, 2008 @ 2:33 pm
Yes, he is much more fluent in Weasel than Gonzo is.
January 30th, 2008 at 2:46 pmShort version: Congress can take a hike.â€
- – Or more aptly, Congress can take a long walk off a short pier.
January 30th, 2008 at 2:55 pmI’m waiting for the “Scooby Doo Moment” when Mukasey takes off the mask and reveals Alberto Gonzales.
Unfortunately he is a clone of the same stooge we had before.
January 30th, 2008 at 3:06 pmthis is why NO nominees of ANY sort should be confirmed by the Senate…None, whatsoever.
January 30th, 2008 at 3:08 pmAssault Mukasey, it’s assault. A criminal violation of the law and an insult against the rule of law. Look at your penal code again, it must be some years since you have, because in almost any if not all states waterboarding is assault and a case could be made for unlawful restraint and/or kidnapping. What a shithead. He wants to kiss daddy bush’s ass rather than be the man he’s supposed to be and stand by the law. Up yours Mukasey!
January 30th, 2008 at 3:41 pmasdfaflakjhalkdjfhadsf jeesh
January 30th, 2008 at 4:10 pmThis whole thing is the most ridiculous, assinine bunch of double talk and evasiveness that has ever been perpetrated on the rule of law and our constitution. This new AG and others are covering for their masters that authorized and those individuals that conducted torture. Simply put…waterboarding is TORTURE and it is ILLEGAL and everyone knows it. For this government to have condoned such reprehensible acts that it actively prosecuted and soundly condemned during WWII is a travesty of justice and a slap in the face to every veteran that’s served to defend truth, justice and democracy.
January 30th, 2008 at 6:25 pmAlso, it is truly amazing that our media is so focused on electioneering and it’s entertainment value with things as stupid as whether or not Obama snubbed Hillary at the SOTU address and not give attention to these hearings is also a travesty. Shame on all of us for just shrugging this whole thing off…for GOD’s sake these were tactics that the Nazis used!!!!! WAKE UP PEOPLE…this is your country that this is happening too!!!!
If waterboarding wasn’t torture, he’d have no problems saying so.
If torture was illegal, he’d have no problems saying so.
If America did not torture, he’d have no problems saying so.
If Bush and Cheney had not ordered torture, sullying America’s name, he’d have no problems saying so.
Since Mukasey has problems saying anything clearly, we must therefore conclude that Bush and Cheney ordered torture, that America tortures detainees, that waterboarding is torture, and that America is still doing bad things to people for no good reason.
Torture is a War Crime, and Mukasey is protecting criminals.
The Senators who voted this asshole into a job need to be voted out. (Yes, that includes Feinstein the enabler.)
Impeach, impeach, impeach!!!
January 30th, 2008 at 8:57 pmNO, now its called milk boarding. So, of course waterboarding is illegal, now we do it with milk, so that makes it OK.
January 31st, 2008 at 1:32 amGot it?
Everyday I call the Blackhouse and leave a message for Shrimpya that he is the “enemy from within” the founding fathers warned us about and I consider him an enemy of the state.
1 202 456-1111, press 1
I always end it with a “Have a nice day” though.
January 31st, 2008 at 1:35 amOh my God, what a great loophole, sir! “I wish I could tell you guys what’s going on in the tent, but there’s really nothing that can explain it better than… seeing the tent from the inside! Wish I could let you in but there’s a dress code, and you don’t have the right clothing, you’ll have to trust me on that. Oh, how I wish I could show you this tent, my friends.” Shoot this man, before he brings the nation in jeopardy: he knows too much.
January 31st, 2008 at 5:03 amWe have a sitting president with the distinction of vetoing an anti-torture bill….
Congress can impeach Mukassey for this obstruction. Agree to an impeachment of the new AG.
The lawmakers, Representative Silvestre Reyes, Democrat of Texas, and Representative Peter Hoekstra, Republican of Michigan, threatened to issue subpoenas to get testimony and other information from the C.I.A. “There is no basis upon which the attorney general can stand in the way of our work,” they said.The fix is in.
This is no surprise – it’s one of the reasons Bush appointed this radical Zionist (his wife Susan was one of the biggest fundraisers in New York for the illegal Jewish settlements on Palestinian land) to hide the torture. With his ties to Israel, he should be pretty good at this, as we’re seeing already.
He knows. Like Gonzo he’s laughing, right in our faces.
And he knows there’s not a goddamned thing the ‘Rats will do about it.
Get Real, People. Mukasey and Feinstein work for the same people. And those people don’t want you to know to the whole truth about the CIA torture scandal — in large measure because it also has a lot to do with the whole truth about 9-11. Remember, the 9-11 Report (which even its insider, CFR, CIA, right-wing scumbag and coverup authors are now backing away from) was based largely on transcripts of the people that the CIA was torturing.
Isn’t Hoekstra one of the most consistent Bush backers in the House?
Interesting that Mukasey managed to piss off even him.
Until we break the corporate virtual monopoly on what we hear and see, we keep losing, don’t matter what we do. DoJ can “ask” but they cannot “tell.” Congress does not report to the DoJ.
At least… that’s what my old, perhaps outdated, copy of The Constitution says.
Hopefully Congress tells DoJ to take a flying leap.
If we had a media that wasn’t part of the problem, there’d be a LOT more people waking up to the truth.
And there would be a LOT more people, well, like us.It’s more alarming than anything We’re on our own here. There’s nobody in charge. Nobody representing us.
We’re it.
January 31st, 2008 at 8:06 am