Not Found In Congress: An Active Bill To Ban Waterboarding

When it comes to the issue of waterboarding torture, Democrats in Congress have had a lot to say. How much, however, have they done?

Some credit must be given to those Democrats in the Senate who worked to oppose the confirmation of Michael Mukasey as Attorney General after it became clear that he would not do anything to confront the use of waterboarding torture by the Bush Administration. Because of the collaboration by senators Charles Schumer and Dianne Feinstein with the Bush White House, however, the attempt to stop the Mukasey confirmation failed.

Now we’ve seen the results of that failure: Mukasey has announced that, although the Bush White House admits to using waterboarding torture, no criminal investigation will take place. Mukasey says that his predecessors as Attorney General declared waterboarding torture to be legal (as if they were judges with the authority to do so), and he would hate to contradict them.

It would be difficult to force Mukasey to begin a criminal investigation, though the Congress could establish an investigation of its own.

There is another obvious remedy to refusal of the Bush Administration to acknowledge the substantial body of law that establishes waterboarding as torture, and therefore a crime. Congress could pass legislation that explicitly declares waterboarding and similar procedures to be against the law.

A bill of this sort was introduced into the Senate last August, by Senator Edward Kennedy – S 1943 IS. The bill got seven co-sponsors, including then-presidential candidate Christopher Dodd. Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton did not cosponsor the bill. S 1943 IS was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, and there it sat. No action has been taken on it since.

There is no active bill in either house of Congress to ban waterboarding. Why? If the Democrats truly object to waterboarding, as they should, why have they not responded to Michael Mukasey’s refusal to act by passing an undeniable ban on the procedure and other cruel treatments of prisoners held by the United States government?

Why won’t either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama show some leadership on this issue? Are they afraid of appearing too soft? Do they really believe that a President who does not torture prisoners is too soft to lead?