The landscape on this one is pretty clear.

Waterboarding was authorized by a Presidential finding in 2002, and amplified by a Gonzales legal opinion in 2005.

The CIA has actually done it, "how many times" is not entirely clear, but at least three that they admit to in public. Khalid Sheik Mohammed is one of those, and there are two others.

"Some" US agencies have now declared they "will not do it", the CIA is one of them, and the mil is another, but of course there are "many" black agencies in the US, not the least of which are the "independent contractors" that work directly for the President.

Mukasey is unwilling to take a direct stand on it, because "he has not been briefed". Well..... how "briefed" does he really need to be? Admiral Mike McConnell, the Director of National Intelligence, testified before a Senate Committee on the public airwaves, that these kinds of interrogation techniques "will continue".

I mean, that tells you everything you need to know, right?

They're going to do it. The CIA and the mil won't be the ones doing it, but "someone's" going to do it anyway.

"Who" it is, doesn't really matter, right? It's being done "on behalf of the US government", and therefore on behalf of We the People.

I submit to you (all), that the effectiveness of waterboarding, isn't even the issue here.

It's the perception of waterboarding, that's the issue. It's the perception that the US government is now engaging in a form of torture which has been recognized as such ever since the Spanish Inquisition (and probably even before that), is prevented by law and that is also institutionalized in international treaties to which the US is a signatory.

That's the issue. Not whether it "works" or not.