Attorney general nominee Michael Mukasey appears headed for Senate approval following his first day of confirmation hearings. On Wednesday, Mukasey defended many of President Bush’s most controversial post-9/11 policies. He said the president has the right to indefinitely detain American citizens without charge. He refused to recommend the closing of the military prison at Guantánamo. And Mukasey said he does not believe prisoners at Guantánamo should be allowed the right of habeas corpus. Meanwhile, Mukasey was harshly critical of a 2002 Justice Department memo on torture, which he described as “worse than a sin.”