The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Washington

The US Senate late Thursday confirmed Michael Mukasey as the country's new attorney general, despite criticism of his refusal to say whether an interrogation method called "waterboarding" was legal.

Mukasey was confirmed on a 53 to 40 vote in the Democrat-controlled senate. President George W. Bush's pick for the country's top law enforcement officer had appeared to be in jeopardy until this week because Mukasey had declined to declare that waterboarding was torture and therefore illegal. Waterboarding, which critics say amounts to simulated drowning and torture, has been reported as having been adapted for use by US interrogators after the September 11, 2001 attacks to wrest information from "war on terror" suspects. The White House refuses to say what the United States does and does not do to detainees, and says Mukasey has not had the classified briefings needed to be able to assess alleged US interrogation practices.