Michael Mukasey

WASHINGTON — Waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques were not a factor in tracking down Osama bin Laden, a leading Republican senator insisted yesterday. Senator John McCain, who spent five years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, also rejected the argument that any form of torture is critical to US success in the fight against terrorism. The Arizona Republican said Michael Mukasey, the former attorney general, and others who back those tactics were wrong to claim that waterboarding Al Qaeda’s number three leader, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, provided information that led to bin...

WASHINGTON — Waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques were not a factor in tracking down Osama bin Laden, a leading Republican senator insisted yesterday. Senator John McCain, who spent five years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, also rejected the argument that any form of torture is critical to US success in the fight against terrorism. The Arizona Republican said Michael Mukasey, the former attorney general, and others who back those tactics were wrong to claim that waterboarding Al Qaeda’s number three leader, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, provided information that led to bin...

WASHINGTON - The Senate confirmed retired judge Michael Mukasey as attorney general last night to replace Alberto R. Gonzales, who was forced from office in a scandal over his handling of the Justice Department. Mukasey, 66, was confirmed as the nation's 81st attorney general after a sharp debate over his refusal to say whether the waterboarding interrogation technique is torture. Republicans were solidly behind President Bush's nominee. Democrats said their votes were not so much for Mukasey as they were for restoring a leader to a Justice Department left adrift after...

WASHINGTON - The Senate confirmed retired judge Michael Mukasey as attorney general last night to replace Alberto R. Gonzales, who was forced from office in a scandal over his handling of the Justice Department. Mukasey, 66, was confirmed as the nation's 81st attorney general after a sharp debate over his refusal to say whether the waterboarding interrogation technique is torture. Republicans were solidly behind President Bush's nominee. Democrats said their votes were not so much for Mukasey as they were for restoring a leader to a Justice Department left adrift after...

WASHINGTON - President Bush's pick for attorney general has promised to fire any Justice Department employee who discusses sensitive cases with the White House without his approval, a leading Democratic senator said yesterday. Earlier this week, retired federal judge Michael Mukasey told another senator he would also fire employees who failed to report being asked about cases by politicians, such as elected lawmakers. The pledges were part of Mukasey's attempts to soothe critics, including those in Congress, who believe the Justice Department has become too close to White...

WASHINGTON - Protesters staged a waterboarding yesterday outside the Department of Justice, calling for a Senate committee to reject attorney general nominee Michael Mukasey because of his reluctance to define the interrogation tactic as torture. The demonstration came shortly before Senator Benjamin L. Cardin, Democrat of Maryland, said he would oppose Mukasey during a Senate Judiciary Committee vote set for today on whether the retired judge should be confirmed to lead the Justice Department.

WASHINGTON - President Bush sought to save Michael Mukasey's troubled nomination for attorney general yesterday, defending the retired judge's refusal to say whether he considers waterboarding torture and warning of a leaderless Justice Department if Democrats do not confirm him. "If the Senate Judiciary Committee were to block Judge Mukasey on these grounds, they would set a new standard for confirmation that could not be met by any responsible nominee...

WASHINGTON - Conservatives yesterday lined up for and against potential attorney general nominee Michael Mukasey, the man they believe has ascended to the top of President Bush's list of replacements for Alberto Gonzales. Earlier in the week, Democrats in the Senate threatened to block confirmation of another prospect - Theodore Olson, a longtime GOP ally and former solicitor general who represented Bush before the Supreme Court in the contested 2000 presidential election. The behind-the-scenes battle over who will succeed Gonzales heated up over the weekend as...

WASHINGTON - Protecting former federal judge Michael Mukasey cost taxpayers an estimated $28 million over more than seven years - or $10,000 a day - even as Justice Department agencies argued about how much of a threat he faced. Now nominated to become the nation's 81st attorney general, Mukasey was given US Marshals bodyguards while presiding over a high-profile terror trial in the early 1990s, when he served as a US District Court judge in Manhattan. He kept the protections, code-named "Eagle Detail," until 2005 - nine years after the trial...

WASHINGTON - A House committee has issued a subpoena for FBI reports from interviews with President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney in the CIA leak investigation. The subpoena to Attorney General Michael Mukasey from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is the latest move by Congress to shed light on Cheney's precise role in the leak of Valerie Plame Wilson's CIA identity. On Friday, former White House press secretary Scott McClellan is scheduled to testify to the House Judiciary Committee.

WASHINGTON - Protesters staged a waterboarding yesterday outside the Department of Justice, calling for a Senate committee to reject attorney general nominee Michael Mukasey because of his reluctance to define the interrogation tactic as torture. The demonstration came shortly before Senator Benjamin L. Cardin, Democrat of Maryland, said he would oppose Mukasey during a Senate Judiciary Committee vote set for today on whether the retired judge should be confirmed to lead the Justice Department.

WASHINGTON - President Bush sought to save Michael Mukasey's troubled nomination for attorney general yesterday, defending the retired judge's refusal to say whether he considers waterboarding torture and warning of a leaderless Justice Department if Democrats do not confirm him. "If the Senate Judiciary Committee were to block Judge Mukasey on these grounds, they would set a new standard for confirmation that could not be met by any responsible nominee...

WASHINGTON - Protecting former federal judge Michael Mukasey cost taxpayers an estimated $28 million over more than seven years - or $10,000 a day - even as Justice Department agencies argued about how much of a threat he faced. Now nominated to become the nation's 81st attorney general, Mukasey was given US Marshals bodyguards while presiding over a high-profile terror trial in the early 1990s, when he served as a US District Court judge in Manhattan. He kept the protections, code-named "Eagle Detail," until 2005 - nine years after the...

WASHINGTON - President Bush's pick for attorney general has promised to fire any Justice Department employee who discusses sensitive cases with the White House without his approval, a leading Democratic senator said yesterday. Earlier this week, retired federal judge Michael Mukasey told another senator he would also fire employees who failed to report being asked about cases by politicians, such as elected lawmakers. The pledges were part of Mukasey's attempts to soothe critics, including those in Congress, who believe...

WASHINGTON - Conservatives yesterday lined up for and against potential attorney general nominee Michael Mukasey, the man they believe has ascended to the top of President Bush's list of replacements for Alberto Gonzales. Earlier in the week, Democrats in the Senate threatened to block confirmation of another prospect - Theodore Olson, a longtime GOP ally and former solicitor general who represented Bush before the Supreme Court in the contested 2000 presidential election. The behind-the-scenes battle over who will succeed Gonzales heated up over the weekend...

WASHINGTON - President Bush compared Congress's Democratic leaders yesterday to people who ignored the rise of Lenin and Hitler early in the last century, saying the world paid a terrible price then and risks similar consequences for inaction today. Bush accused Congress of stalling important pieces of the fight to prevent terrorist attacks by dragging out and possibly jeopardizing the confirmation of Michael Mukasey as attorney general, a key part of his national security team; failing to act on a bill governing eavesdropping on terrorist suspects; and moving too slowly to approve spending...

WASHINGTON - Attorney General Michael Mukasey collapsed and lost consciousness while delivering a speech last night, a Justice Department official said. "The attorney general is conscious, conversant, and alert," Justice Department spokesman Peter Carr said after doctors admitted Mukasey to George Washington University Hospital for the night. The attorney general was delivering a speech to the Federalist Society at a Washington hotel when he started shaking, then collapsed, Associate Attorney General Kevin O'Connor said.