MUKASEY ON TORTURE….Michael Mukasey, George Bush’s nominee for attorney general, testifies about torture:
Mukasey also sharply criticized a Justice Department legal opinion issued early in the Bush administration, and since rescinded, that narrowly defined the acts that constitute torture and laid the legal groundwork for the use of harsh interrogation techniques on U.S. detainees.
Calling the memo “a mistake” and “unnecessary,” Mukasey said that torture violates U.S. laws and pointed to the role of American troops in liberating Nazi concentration camps following World War II. “We didn’t do that so we could then duplicate it ourselves,” he said.
Good for him. It’s refreshing to hear some genuine moral clarity from a high-ranking Republican these days.
