CIA not authorised to use waterboarding
AFP
US Attorney General Michael Mukasey said Tuesday that waterboarding is not currently authorized for CIA interrogations, but said he would not answer questions from Congress on the technique’s legality in general.
Mukasey, who is to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, said that since becoming attorney general on November 9 he had been briefed on Central Intelligence Agency methods in its current interrogation programme.
“A limited set of methods is currently authorised for use in that programme. I have been authorized to disclose publicly that waterboarding is not among those methods,” Mukasey wrote in a letter to committee head Senator Patrick Leahy.
“Accordingly, waterboarding is not, and may not be used in the current programme,” he said.
But Mukasey, under pressure since his nomination last year to declare waterboarding, which simulates drowning, as illegal torture in all cases, would not say whether it has been used in the past.
He also suggested there could be circumstances where it might be allowable, and added that he would not answer questions from the committee about technique’s legality under US law in the absence of any specific current needs and conditions to discuss it.
Have Your Say: CIA not authorised to use waterboarding
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report here.
This entry was posted on Thursday, January 31st, 2008 at 11:02 am and is filed under Business News, General . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Translations
Loading ...Related News
- CIA director defends torture
- Mukasey Confirmed as Bush’s Third Attorney General
- CIA Waterboarding Probe Revealed By Feds
- US Senate votes to ban waterboarding by CIA
- AG Denies Details in CIA Tapes Inquiry
Email This Page To A Friend
Latest Headlines
- Bush Seeks to Affirm a Continuing War on Terror
- Protesters denied access to attorneys, forced to march in leg shackles, ACLU charges
- POLITICS DRIVEN BY FICTION: MADE FOR TV
- Diebold Finally Admits its Voting Machines Drop Votes
- Blair has no right to lecture on the rule of law
- 3,000 Vets, War Protesters Hand-Deliver Their Message
- VIDEO: Climate Camp 2008
- Conspiracy Files: Lockerbie
- A UK Window into CIA Abuses
- More People are Catching on to Corporate Media Lies
More Breaking News
Archive
