Dear Senator,

Since Judge Mukasey is unwilling to answer a simple yes or no, when asked if waterboarding is torture, by saying that it depends upon the circumstances, he is saying that it is not illegal. And yet legal precendent has been set.

The United States knows quite a bit about waterboarding. The U.S. government — whether acting alone before domestic courts, commissions and courts-martial or as part of the world community — has not only condemned the use of water torture but has severely punished those who applied it.

After World War II, we convicted several Japanese soldiers for waterboarding American and Allied prisoners of war. At the trial of his captors, then-Lt. Chase J. Nielsen, one of the 1942 Army Air Forces officers who flew in the Doolittle Raid and was captured by the Japanese, testified: “I was given several types of torture. . . . I was given what they call the water cure.” He was asked what he felt when the Japanese soldiers poured the water. “Well, I felt more or less like I was drowning,” he replied, “just gasping between life and death.”

By voting to confrm Judge Muskasy, YOU are condoning the use of waterboarding. Is that your position?

Please restore the rule of law and vote against the Mukasey nomination. Why isn’t this all obvious to you? What are you afraid of? Why won’t you stand to defend against tyranny?