water-boarding

The attorney general nominee declines to call water-boarding torture, as Democrats on Senate panel had sought.

By Richard B. Schmitt
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 31, 2007

WASHINGTON -- Atty. Gen.-designate Michael B. Mukasey, adopting a middle ground on an issue that has become central to his nomination, said coercive interrogation methods, including a form of simulated drowning, were "over the line" and "repugnant." But he declined to say whether he thought so-called water-boarding was a form of torture that would be illegal in all cases.