[JURIST] US Attorney General Michael Mukasey [official profile] Thursday rejected Democratic calls to launch a Department of Justice (DOJ) probe into the CIA's admitted use of waterboarding [JURIST report] on three terror detainees. In testimony [statement, PDF] before the House Judiciary Committee, Mukasey said that because the CIA had relied on a DOJ opinion that found waterboarding to be legal, it would not be appropriate to hold an investigation. AP has more.

Also Thursday, CIA Director Michael Hayden [official profile] told the US House Intelligence Committee that he had officially prohibited CIA agents from using waterboarding [JURIST news archive] in 2006, but that the technique has not been used in almost five years. Hayden suggested that a recent Supreme Court decision on the status of detainees [JURIST report] and new laws passed since the 2002 and 2003 waterboarding incidents had made the practice illegal, in contrast to Wednesday White House statements [JURIST report] that defended the legality of the technique. AP has more.