Attorney General Mukasey Collapses

by: Dark Wraith

Bush Administration Attorney General Michael Mukasey collapsed this evening while speaking at a meeting of the Federalist Society, a Right-wing extremist legal group from which President Bush has drawn the vast majority of his appointments to the federal bench and other influential government positions. A Justice Department official indicated that Mukasey was "shaking" just before he lost consciousness, which might point to some kind of seizure. He did not regain consciousness right away.

Michael Mukasey was appointed to head the Justice Department in the wake of the resignation of his embattled, controversial predecessor, Alberto Gonzales, who had long resisted calls to step down because of his obfuscation and inconsistent testimony before Congress about the political motivations alleged in the firings of U.S. Attorneys.

Mukasey, himself, was not without controversy when he sat on the federal bench. In the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001, young Arab men were being rounded up around the country, and one of those detainees who appeared before then-Judge Mukasey on October 2, 2001, claimed through his attorneys that he was beaten while in custody. The immigrant, a Jordanian named Osama Awadallah, was wearing a prison jumpsuit and was in shackles in Mukasey's courtroom when his attorneys told this to the judge. Mukasey, with no medical background, no way to see any bruising on the prisoner's body, and no interest in ordering a medical examination, said, "As far as the claim that he was beaten, I will tell you that he looks fine to me."

A later medical exam found that Mr. Awadallah had, indeed, suffered blunt force trauma consistent with having been beaten.

Mukasey, who sent a number of men rounded up after 9/11 to indefinite detention, never apologized for his handling of that case.

Attorney General Mukasey has reportedly been taken to a local area hospital for treatment of the condition that caused his collapse. It is hoped that he will be in the hands of those with medical training when the determination is made as to whether or not he looks fine.