The Nuremberg Defense for the 21st Century
Move along, there’s nothing new to see here.
Attorney General Michael Mukasey told Congress this afternoon that his Department of Justice will not only refuse to prosecute those who took part in the waterboarding of detainees, but the department won’t even investigate whether a crime was committed:
“Waterboarding, because it was authorized to be part of a program … cannot possibly be the subject of a Justice Department investigation,” Mukasey said in response to questions from panel Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.).
“That would mean that the same department that authorized the program would now prosecute someone for taking part” in it, he said.
Having trouble wrapping your head around that one? It’s okay; it took me about 15 minutes before I could finally condense it into a meaningful sentence. Here it is, the Mukasey Doctrine on Torture: waterboarding is only “legal” because we said it was, so how can we prosecute someone who was only following orders?
It’s the Nuremberg Defense for the 21st century, but who in Congress is going to call Mukasey out on it?
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[...] Remember how Tony Fratto told us that we might use waterboarding again? Remember how AG Mukasey refused to prosecute Americans who used waterboarding because the Justice Department told them it was [...]
Comment posted at 2/14/08 at 9:28 am