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White House To Congress: Confirm Mukasey Now, Ask Questions About Torture Later

During today’s White House press briefing, Press Secretary Dana Perino brushed aside lawmakers’ concerns about Michael Mukasey’s views on torture, urging them to quickly confirm him as attorney general. “Once he is confirmed, then the Congress has the capability to ask him to come to Congress and to testify on all sorts of matters, including this one,” she said.

But this technique — confirm now, question later — immediately raised red flags with reporters, who pointed out that if Mukasey becomes attorney general, the Bush administration would likely block him from answering questions in the future as well:

MS. PERINO: While they were saying is — which Judge Mukasey has done, is to say, I will not be able to provide a legal opinion about any particular technique. He is not read into the programs. … And once he is confirmed, then the Congress has the capability to ask him to come to Congress and to testify on all sorts of matters, including this one. […]

Q: Dana, a follow up on that. The McCain-Graham letter, on the assumption that Judge Mukasey is confirmed and is read into the program, your policy is still not to talk about specific methods, so he is, if he is confirmed, not going to be in a position to speak about waterboarding as being legal or not.

Watch it:

[flv http://video.thinkprogress.org/2007/11/perinomukasey333.320.240.flv]

Perino dodged the reporter’s follow-up, replying that several lawmakers have “been briefed on the legal underpinnings and they have been briefed on the techniques. So Congress — the appropriate members of Congress have all the information that they need about these programs. They are safe, they are effective, they are tough, and they are legal.”

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But in reality, the White House refuses to even define torture. In fact, key leaders in the House and Senate, including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee John D. Rockefeller (D-WV), say they have never been fully briefed on the administration’s interrogation policies.

The White House would prefer for Congress to confirm Mukasey now and question him later — if at all. But the Bush administration’s long history of secrecy suggests that, should Mukasey be confirmed, the Senate will be able to glean no more from this Attorney General than it could from the previous one.

(HT: Salon’s Tim Grieve)

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Transcript:

MS. PERINO: While they were saying is — which Judge Mukasey has done, is to say, I will not be able to provide a legal opinion about any particular technique. He is not read into the programs. He’s right now a private citizen. He is willing to serve his country. The President will say today, he is — the Attorney General is a critical member of the nation’s war on terror team, and that he needs to be confirmed immediately. And once he is confirmed, then the Congress has the capability to ask him to come to Congress and to testify on all sorts of matters, including this one. […]

Q Dana, a follow up on that. The McCain-Graham letter, on the assumption that Judge Mukasey is confirmed and is read into the program, your policy is still not to talk about specific methods, so he is, if he is confirmed, not going to be in a position to speak about waterboarding as being legal or not.

MS. PERINO: Let me remind you of something. Congress passed a law that this President signed regarding Detainee Treatment Act and also Congress said that the CIA’s program for interrogation is legal. They have been briefed on the legal underpinnings and they have been briefed on the techniques. So Congress — the appropriate members of Congress have all the information that they need about these programs. They are safe, they are effective, they are tough, and they are legal. And Judge Mukasey said that he will review all of the opinions and he will review the information he gets in his classified briefings, and that he will be able to have additional thought after that.

A lot of these discussions are held in closed session, and that’s appropriate because they’re classified for a reason.

Q Understood, but America’s allies in the world, the American people, they will never know whether or not Judge Mukasey is told, so long as the administration —

MS. PERINO: I think that’s a hypothetical that I’m just not prepared to go into right now. I don’t know what Judge Mukasey will or will not say, if confirmed.