Statement of Mark S. Brodin Opposing the Choice of Michael Mukasey as BCLS’s Commencement Speaker
It has been reported that Attorney General Michael Mukasey has a portrait of the great Justice Robert H. Jackson hanging in his office. The ironies abound.
Jackson was of course Chief Prosecutor for the U.S. at the Nuremberg War-Crimes Trials. He began his opening address by observing that if the trials were to serve any useful purpose, the guiding principles insisting on civilized behavior during wartime must apply to all nations, including those sitting in judgment.
Sadly Michael Mukasey has forgotten that critical lesson. Whatever he was before his most recent assignment, he has become an enabler of a regime which trounces upon accepted principles of international law and morality. He is not a role model for our students, and must not be presented as such.
This is why I have voiced my profound opposition to his appearance since the day it was announced, & will continue to do so.
Mark Brodin
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The former adviser writes: "[General Mukasey] has avoided calling waterboarding torture because that is consistent with the administration's position and past practice. Mukasey's refusal to disavow waterboarding reveals his acceptance of his assignment to a secondary role as attorney general, an inferior agent, not a constitutional officer, to certain political appointees in the White House."
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/sidney_blumenthal/2007/11/waterboarding_mukasey.html