WASHINGTON — Judge Michael Mukasey’s nomination for attorney general ran into trouble Thursday when two top Senate Democrats said their votes hinge on whether he will say on the record that an interrogation technique that simulates drowning is torture.
“It’s fair to say my vote would depend on him answering that question,” Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said Thursday.
“This to me is the seminal issue,” said Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois, another member of Leahy’s panel. Durbin said his vote depends on whether Mukasey equates waterboarding with torture.
Leahy has refused to set a date for a vote on Mukasey’s nomination until he clarifies his answer to that question.
“As he always does, Judge Mukasey will answer all questions from the Judiciary Committee in a clear and forthright manner,” said White House spokesman Tony Fratto.
Illinois: Three dead in sailboat sinking
A 35-foot racing sailboat capsized, struck a breakwater and broke apart in rough conditions on Lake Michigan, killing three of the four men aboard, authorities said Thursday. The men were sailing to a dry-dock facility on the Calumet River in Chicago on Wednesday night when one fell overboard, Coast Guard Boatsmate 1st Class Michael Arnold said. The three men on board called the Coast Guard and local authorities, then began searching for the missing man themselves, he said. As they tried to pull him from the water, the boat struck the breakwater and broke up in the 10-foot waves, Arnold said.
N.D.: Fugitive caught in Canada
One of the nation’s most wanted fugitives was captured Thursday in Canada, more than a year after the convicted murderer slipped out of a federal prison hiding among bags of mail in his third escape from confinement, the U.S. Marshals Service said. Richard McNair was captured about 100 miles north of the Canadian border in Campbellton, New Brunswick, after authorities pulled him over in a stolen van, said Ward County Sheriff Vern Erck. He said he planned to accompany federal marshals to Canada to bring McNair back to Bismarck.
California: Sub’s commander relieved of duty
The commanding officer of the nuclear-powered submarine USS Hampton was relieved of his duty Thursday because of a loss of confidence in his leadership, the Navy said Thursday. Cmdr. Michael B. Portland was relieved of duty after a U.S. Navy investigation found the ship failed to do daily safety checks on its nuclear reactor for a month and falsified records to cover up the omission. He will be reassigned.
Florida: Mother on trial for daughter’s genitalia piercing
A 39-year-old woman forcefully had her 13-year-old daughter’s genitalia pierced to make it uncomfortable for her to have sex, the girl told Naples jurors in her mother’s child abuse trial. The girl, now 16, told jurors Wednesday that her mother asked a tattoo artist friend in 2004 to shave the girl’s head to make her unattractive to boys and later held her down for the piercing. The prosecutor said the mother called on a friend to shave the girl’s head and do the piercing after realizing that she had been having sex, including with the mother’s boyfriend. Defense attorney Donald Day said the mother had trouble with her rebellious daughter and that the girl agreed to the piercing to help rebuild her mother’s trust.
N.Y.: ‘Preppie Killer’ pleads not guilty to drug charges
The so-called “Preppie Killer” who served 15 years in prison for strangling a woman in Central Park in 1986 pleaded not guilty Thursday to drug sales and possession. Robert Chambers and his girlfriend, Shawn Kovell, are accused of dealing cocaine out of their apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Both were being held pending a hearing Monday.
France: An ecological ‘New Deal’
France will eliminate all energy waste by households and ban incandescent light bulbs and polluting cars, under proposals announced Thursday by President Nicolas Sarkozy, who also met with former Vice President Al Gore. Sarkozy called his proposals “an ecological New Deal” that emerged from months of talks aimed at pushing France into the vanguard of the fight against global warming.
Italy: U.S. soldier’s murder charge dismissed
A Rome court on Thursday threw out the case of an American soldier charged in the 2005 shooting of an Italian intelligence agent in Iraq. The court granted the defense’s argument that Italy had no jurisdiction in the case against Spc. Mario Lozano, who was on trial in absentia on charges of murder and attempted murder for the March 4, 2005, death of Nicola Calipari, who was shot at a checkpoint near Baghdad airport shortly after securing the release of kidnapped Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena.
Pakistan: Suicide bomber kills 20
A suicide car bomber struck a military truck in northwestern Pakistan on Thursday, killing at least 20 people two days after troops were sent to the lawless region to quell pro-Taliban militants. The blast came a week after the bloody assassination attempt in the southern city of Karachi on ex-prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
From Herald news services
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