KEY POINTS:
Michael Mukasey, President George W. Bush's nominee for Attorney-General, appears all but assured of Senate confirmation this week despite his refusal to characterise tough US interrogation techniques as torture.
Two leading Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Chuck Schumer of New York and Dianne Feinstein of California, dropped objections to Mukasey's nomination, apparently after a closed-door meeting in which he promised to uphold any future law passed by Congress explicitly defining one method, called water-boarding, as torture.
Their climbdown was questioned by critics from all sides of the political spectrum about what it would mean for America's future prosecution of the "war on terror".
Liberals accused the two senators of acting as apologists for torture, and conservatives said the hesitation they and their fellow Democrats have shown over the nomination only demonstrates their weakness on questions of national security.
- Independent
