The American Jewish Committee’s Board of Governors issued a statement saying that waterboarding is “unquestionably torture†and “clearly illegal.†The board condemned the practice of simulated drowning after meeting Monday in New York. Its statement came in response to the national discussion surrounding the confirmation hearings for Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who had claimed during those hearings that he wasn’t sure if waterboarding was torture. “An interrogation practice associated with the Spanish Inquisition and prosecuted under U.S. law as torture as much as a century ago is unquestionably torture,†the statement read. The 100-year-old advocacy organization stated that waterboarding meets the tests for torture or intentionally inflicting severe pain on a person in order to obtain information or a confession. “The use of officially sanctioned torture techniques corrupts our intelligence services, removes our military from the moral high ground, materially damages our nation’s standing in the world, and exposes our military to similar treatment when captured,†the AJC wrote.
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