US attorney general nominee's prospects dimmed by refusal to declare waterboarding illegal

Prospects for Michael Mukasey's confirmation as attorney general are dimming after he again refused to equate waterboarding with torture and more Democrats on a crucial committee announced they would vote against him.

First-year Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse announced from the Senate floor that he would oppose Mukasey's confirmation. The retired federal judge's refusal to say that waterboarding is "unconditionally wrong" would leave open the possibility that U.S. agencies could cross a moral and legal line and use it on detainees, Whitehouse said. Waterboarding is an interrogation technique that can make a subject feel as if he is drowning.

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