WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama's nominee for attorney general said unequivocally Thursday that waterboarding was torture, and he vowed to initiate an extensive and immediate "damage assessment" to fix fundamental problems in the Justice Department that he said were caused by the Bush administration.
Eric H. Holder Jr. told the Senate Judiciary Committee during a marathon confirmation hearing that the incoming Obama administration planned major changes in the interrogation of terrorism suspects and many other issues that would represent a significant break from the current policies and programs.
Early on, he was asked whether waterboarding, which simulates the feeling of drowning, constituted torture and was illegal.
"If you look at the history of the use of that technique," Holder said, "we prosecuted our own soldiers for using it in Vietnam. . . . Waterboarding is torture."
Waterboarding became a controversial symbol of the Bush administration's war on terrorism after it admitted the technique was used several times by the CIA on high-value Al Qaeda suspects. In a further break with the Bush administration, Holder said the president's role as commander in chief did not give him the right to circumvent the law -- on that or on other controversial counter-terrorism programs, including warrantless surveillance.
"No one is above the law," Holder said, adding that it was "the obligation of the president . . . to follow those laws."
Holder, 57, was equally emphatic about changing the internal dynamics of a Justice Department "badly shaken by allegations of improper political interference." He said the damage done under President Bush appeared to go far beyond that of a credibility issue and into the operational workings of the department.
Holder said Obama officials already were scrutinizing the most controversial programs and policies of the Bush administration -- on interrogations, warrantless surveillance and military tribunals for terrorists -- that had undermined civil rights investigations and many other important responsibilities.
If confirmed, Holder said, he would immediately step up those efforts, saying urgency was needed because the problems were undermining not only the U.S. standing in the world but the administration of law enforcement and justice at home.
He said the biggest concern of the new administration was "to prevent those things from happening in the future."
