To the Editor:

Re “Senators Clash With Nominee Over Torture and Limits of Law” (front page, Oct. 19):

Michael B. Mukasey, the nominee for attorney general, acknowledges that torture is illegal under national and international law. He will not say, however, what is or is not torture. This allows him to preserve the right to sanction torture by defining it as not torture.

But like pornography, torture doesn’t require a definition. The Mukasey nomination should be voted down. There must be one moral person in this country who qualifies for attorney general, and the Senate should hold out until this person is located and nominated by President Bush.

As an American citizen, I am tired of being disgusted with my government. We deserve better. Mitchell Turker

Portland, Ore., Oct. 19, 2007

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To the Editor:

How can the United States hope to regain its position as a respected world leader on the great issues of human rights if its chief law enforcement officer cannot even bring himself to acknowledge the undeniable verity that waterboarding constitutes torture, applying any conceivable definition of that term? George I. Gordon