Fri, Feb 1, 2008 (2 a.m.)

Attorney General Michael Mukasey continues to dodge the question of whether waterboarding is torture.

During confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee last fall, the retired federal judge refused to give a definitive answer when confronted with direct questions by Democrats.

He did promise, however, that if Congress approved a bill outlawing waterboarding, and that if the bill became law, he would enforce it. He also promised to study the issue if he became attorney general.

His promises won just enough support from Democrats to have his nomination forwarded to the full Senate, where, with strong Republican support, he was confirmed.

On Wednesday the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on waterboarding and Mukasey was again asked whether waterboarding constitutes torture, which is illegal under U.S. law.

And again Mukasey dodged the question.

The question is important because President Bush claims “enhanced interrogation techniques” are legal when used on terrorism suspects captured in foreign countries. It ought to be clear that such techniques do not include waterboarding.

U.S. intelligence officials have acknowledged that at least three al-Qaida suspects were waterboarded after 9/11. The CIA and the Pentagon officially prohibited the practice in 2006. Yet no one can be certain that waterboarding, or a variation of it, has been ended in all the secret detention facilities that the United States operates in foreign countries, or that Bush won’t reinstate the practice.

Sen. John McCain, Republican front-runner in the presidential campaign and a former prisoner of war who was tortured, has no reluctance about calling waterboarding torture. Campaigning in Iowa last fall, he even described it, saying, “You incline someone’s head and stuff a rag in their mouth and pour water and give one the total sensation of drowning.”

If someone who is the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination is giving a straight answer on waterboarding, so should the attorney general. We believe Congress should pass a bill stating emphatically that waterboarding is torture, and we hope there would be enough members who care enough about the integrity of this country to override any veto by Bush.