November 1, 2007 (LPAC)--The nomination of Judge Michael Mukasey to become U.S. Attorney General is at risk because of his refusal to give a straight-forward answer as to whether water boarding constitutes torture, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) said yesterday. Speaking at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Specter said that the water boarding issue could defeat Mukasey's confirmation, but Specter also said that he thinks the nominee has said about as much as he can on the issue without putting U.S. personnel at risk of prosecution. Specter called for a closed session of the Judiciary Committee on the subject.

Four Democrats on the Judiciary Committee, Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Richard Durbin (D-IL), Joseph Biden (D-DE), and Edward Kennedy (D-MA), have now declared that they will vote against Mukasey because of his refusal to admit that water boarding is torture. The big question is how Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who strongly advocated for Mukasay, will vote next Tuesday in the committee.

Water boarding, which creates an unbearable sensation of drowning, dates back to the Spanish Inquisition as a method of torture. On a number of occasions over the past century, the United States government has prosecuted water boarding as a war crime.

Many observers have charged that Mukasey is protecting the White House by his refusal to answer the question. Sen. Whitehouse, appearing on PBS last night, said that Mukasay's testimony "has been scrubbed by the White House, and by the Vice President."

Legal sophists quoted in today's New York Times point out that once water boarding is clearly defined as torture, then those who approved such methods can be held legally liable, all the way up to the President. Until a technique is proven guilty though, Cheney and wife have the right to use any of those techniques openly, but once they are proven otherwise, then a undisclosed location is needed.