WASHINGTON - President-elect Barack Obama's nominee for attorney general said unequivocally yesterday that waterboarding is torture, and he vowed to initiate an extensive and immediate "damage assessment" to fix fundamental problems within the Justice Department that he said were caused by the outgoing Bush administration.
Eric H. Holder Jr. told the Senate Judiciary Committee during a marathon hearing that the incoming Obama administration is making major course corrections on the interrogations of terror suspects and many other issues that will represent a significant break from the current policies and programs.
Early on, he was asked whether waterboarding, which simulates the feeling of drowning, constitutes torture and is illegal.
"If you look at the history of the use of that technique," Holder replied, "we prosecuted our own soldiers for using it in Vietnam ... waterboarding is torture."
Waterboarding became a controversial symbol of the Bush administration's excesses in the war on terrorism, after it admitted that the technique was used several times by the CIA on high-value al-Qaida suspects. Not only is it illegal, Holder said, but in a further break with the Bush administration, he said the president's role as commander in chief does not give him the right to circumvent the law - on that or on other controversial counterterrorism programs including warrantless surveillance.
"No one is above the law," Holder said. He said it is "the obligation of the president, as commander in chief, to follow those laws."
Holder was equally emphatic about changing the internal dynamics of the Justice Department, which he said was "badly shaken by allegations of improper political interference." He said that the damage done under Bush appears to go far beyond that of a credibility issue and into the operational workings of the department.
Obama administration officials are already scrutinizing the most controversial programs and policies of the Bush administration, on interrogation, warrantless surveillance, military tribunals for terrorists and a polarization in the Justice Department that he said has undermined civil rights investigations and many other important responsibilities, Holder said.
Holder pledged that, if confirmed, he would immediately ramp up those efforts in close coordination with congressional overseers on the committee, saying urgency is needed because the problems are undermining not only the United States' standing in the world, but the administration of law enforcement and justice here at home.
