I think that once Mukasey is "settled" in to his new office as Attorney General, Sen. Schumer and other Senate Democrats should call him back to testify in the Senate regarding his answers to confirmeation-hearing questions about the use of torture.
The primary reason he gave for not fully answering the main questions about waterboarding was that since he was not yet in office, he didn't have access to the full legal background, and therefore was unable to answer. However, he presumably will soon have full access to this information, and will be in a position to inform the Senate about it.
I think that he should be asked to do it.
I'm sorry for the shortness of this diary, but it seems to me that this in a very important question. During the confirmation hearings, Mukasey did not deny that the questions were important, and he stated that he himself found waterboarding to be repugnant, and that torture was not legal. The missing piece of information is whether or not this repugnant process--long universally considered to be torture--is now considered, or not considered, to be torture in the Executive Branch, and the rationale for that consideration.
Mukasey further implied that once he was ensconced in office, he would have the information and would make a decision about it, based on the information.
I for one (and I suspect I am not alone) am eagerly awaiting this "most independent" attorney general to make his determination, and to report it to the American people. If he does not report it within the first few days in office, then it will be time for the Senate, in its oversight capacity, to demand it.
Senator Schumer, who backed Mukasey in spite of his refusal to give an unambiguous answer to this question, owes the American people an answer. He and his Senate colleagues are in a position to get us one.
Since I'm always an optimist, I think there is some possibility that Mukasey will, in fact, reject the Gonzales rationale and will disallow waterboarding and other "enhanced" interrogation techniques. But I want to know, because the sooner America stops this sh-t, the sooner we can begin the long slog to rehabilitate America in the eyes of the world (not counting the rose-filtered eyes of Nicholas Sarkozy, of course, since he seems capable of completely ignoring the entire Iraq war as he woos the American government).
Greg Shenaut