United States:Michael Mukasey should be denied senate confirmation as US attorney general unless the retired judge denounces as torture the interrogation technique known as waterboarding, a top Democrat said yesterday.
Senate armed services committee chairman Carl Levin said Mr Mukasey must declare such simulated drowning to be unlawful, while two more Republicans said the nominee should clearly stake out a position against waterboarding.
"He should not be confirmed unless he is very, very clear about these aggressive techniques, which violate our laws and violate (the international) Geneva (convention on treatment of prisoners of war), as being totally unacceptable," Mr Levin, a Michigan Democrat, told CBS's Face the Nation.
Mr Mukasey is expected to spell out his position this week in responses to written questions from members of the senate judiciary committee.
He appeared headed toward easy confirmation as President Bush's nominee to succeed Alberto Gonzales as attorney general until he ran into trouble this month at the second day of his senate confirmation hearing, much of it stemming from his response when asked about waterboarding.
The retired federal judge and former prosecutor from New York said torture violated the US constitution. But he declined to specifically say whether waterboarding was torture.
Critics have accused the US of torturing suspects in the "war on terrorism". Despite Mr Bush's assurances that he prohibits torture, it is unclear how detainees are treated since the president has refused to disclose interrogation techniques.
Republican senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain, the latter a Republican White House contender, voiced concerns about Mr Mukasey but neither said whether they may vote against him.
Mr McCain said: "Anyone who says they don't know if waterboarding is torture or not has no experience in the conduct of warfare and national security."
- (Reuters)