Mukasey quizzed about interrogations

WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- President George W. Bush's nominee for U.S. attorney general, would not say Thursday whether he considered waterboarding torture.

Michael Mukasey, a retired federal judge from New York, faced stiff questioning regarding using harsh interrogation techniques from Senate Judiciary Committee members during the second day of confirmation hearings.

When asked by Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., about whether techniques such as forced nudity, mock executions and waterboarding -- simulated drowning -- violated articles of the Geneva Conventions, Mukasey said, "I'm not sufficiently familiar with interpretations of the Geneva Conventions to be offering views on what would or would not come within it or outside it."

Asked point-blank by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., whether waterboarding was constitutional, Mukasey answered: "I don't know what's involved in the technique. If waterboarding is torture, torture is not constitutional."