Balkinization  

Saturday, November 03, 2007

When Diane Can't Read

JB

Explaining why Judge Mukasey has her vote, Senator Feinstein opines:
As Judge Mukasey wrote, waterboarding is clearly against the law for the American military. Waterboarding is clearly prohibited by the Convention Against Torture and the Geneva Convention. It was again prohibited by the Detainee Treatment Act, which only covers military interrogations.

Congress should go further and explicitly ban waterboarding and other so-called enhanced interrogation techniques for all parts of the government.
Just one little problem with this logic. The prohibition on torture already applies to all parts of the government. Apparently Senator Feinstein has not read the Detainee Treatment Act, which she voted for.
SEC. 1003. PROHIBITION ON CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT OF PERSONS UNDER CUSTODY OR CONTROL OF THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT.

(a) In General- No individual in the custody or under the physical control of the United States Government, regardless of nationality or physical location, shall be subject to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.

(b) Construction- Nothing in this section shall be construed to impose any geographical limitation on the applicability of the prohibition against cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment under this section.
And what of 18 USC section 2340A, which Congress enacted in 1994 to enforce the Convention Against Torture?
(a) Offense.— Whoever outside the United States commits or attempts to commit torture shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both, and if death results to any person from conduct prohibited by this subsection, shall be punished by death or imprisoned for any term of years or for life.
What does it say about our elected representatives that Senators simultaneously believe that waterboarding is torture but also believe that CIA interrogations using waterboarding are currently legal? Does Senator Feinstein really believe that torture is currently legal in America? Or does she just not care?

Comments:

It stupefyingly obvious that Feinstein just plain does not give a flying fuck what the law says. The law is for peons, don'tchano!
 

It is Interesting that Feinstein and Schumer both will vote up while Feingold will be voting down.

If my math is correct if the repubs all vote up, the nomination will go through.
 

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