Mukasey nomination in doubt as Leahy declines

November 2, 2007

Washington, DC - Patrick Leahy said Friday he won't support Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey since Mukasey refuses to take a stand against torture.

Patrick Leahy said Friday he won't support Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey since Mukasey refuses to take a stand against torture.

"No American should need a classified briefing to determine whether waterboarding is torture," said the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Leahy.

Four Democrats on Leahy's panel, which will decide Tuesday whether to approve Mukasey's confirmation, have already said they will not support him.

Once viewed as a sure thing, Mukasey's nomination was threatened during hearings last month in which he repeatedly refused to say whether he considers the simulated drowning interrogation technique known as waterboarding to be a form of torture.

Torture is considered a war crime by the international community and waterboarding has been banned by the U.S. military, but CIA interrogators are believed to have used the technique on terror detainees as recently as a few years ago.

Mukasey is viewed by Democrats as a road-blocker for war crimes trials.

President Bush, Vice-President Dick Cheney, and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld could be prosecuted for war crimes if waterboarding is declared illegal.