Think Progress
Today on CNN, White House adviser Ed Gillespie defended attorney general nominee Michael Mukasey’s legal dodge on whether waterboarding constitutes torture. Mukasey called the technique “hypothetical.”
Gillespie similarly tried to claim that waterboarding doesn’t exist. “[F]irst of all, this technique, we don’t know that it’s used by the government or is used by the government,” he said. “That’s never been confirmed by the U.S. government.”
Host John Roberts called out Gillespie’s dodge, noting, “It’s widely held that waterboarding was what broke Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to get him to divulge all of the information that he had.” Gillespie simply replied, “[T]he fact is the government doesn’t confirm techniques regardless of whether they’re used or not used.” Watch it:
While Bush administration officials have refused to publicly say whether or not they waterboard detainees, CIA officials have repeatedly told the media that they have carried out this torture. Some examples:
– In one of the administration’s most high-profile cases, al Qaeda mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed reportedly endured waterboarding two minutes — “far longer than any of the other ‘high-value’ terror targets who were subjected to the technique.” A former CIA officer called it an “extraordinary amount of time for ... more »


