George W Bush claims UK lives 'saved by waterboarding'

[Turborama]

Source: BBC

British lives were saved by the use of information obtained from terrorist suspects by "waterboarding", according to former US President George W Bush. He said the interrogation technique - which simulates drowning - had helped to break up plots to attack Heathrow airport and Canary Wharf.

=snip=

Mr Bush's memoirs, Decision Points, are being serialised in the Times.

In an interview with the paper he said: "Three people were waterboarded and I believe that decision saved lives." He confirmed he had authorised the use of waterboarding to extract information from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the al-Qaeda mastermind behind the 9/11 attack. Mr Bush tells the paper: "Damn right!

"We capture the guy, the chief operating officer of al-Qaeda, who kills 3,000 people. We felt he had the information about another attack. He says: 'I'll talk to you when I get my lawyer'. I say, 'what options are available and legal?'"

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11715577

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Quelle surprise! Murdoch has bought the rights to his BFF's attempt to rewrite history and justify his crimes against humanity & the environment.

[Art_from_Ark]

1. I take anything bu$h says with a huge grain of salt

The cynic in me says they're trying to polish up his image to make way for Jeb! in 2012

[Turborama]

3. You could be right. I wouldn't say that you are being a cynic, more of a realist.

I wonder who wrote it, though. Marc Thiessen?

[orleans]

2. can we arrest him now?

if memory serves correctly--waterboarding is illegal!

(i wish someone would arrest that motherfucker and bring an ounce of justice to this world)

[saigon68]

8. He is a dangerous Evil Fuck

Like the Devil in a suit and tie. Millions have died because of this War Criminal

[Bandit]

16. Except that it is not

At least according to the current and past Administration.. If it were illegal they would be forced to prosecute and they will not do so on the grounds that it was approved and NOT ILLEGAL. Torture is still supposedly illegal but water boarding is no longer considered torture by current US politicians...NO ONE has specifically stated water boarding is illegal, at least no one in any position of Power..

[alanquatermass]

4. What's sad is how we (and I include myself here) tend to write-off every thwarted terrorist attack--

-- as a "thwarted" terrorist attack.

In other words, we are never really, truly, in our heart-of-hearts 100% sure an attack was about to take place.

We prefer to think it wasn't... that it is just another case of a trigger-happy, borderline-fascist Gov't -- ours -- overstepping its bounds and denying innocent people their rights.

But of course, when the terrorists DO manage to penetrate our defenses (as on 9/11) we HOWL in protest and say, "Why wasn't anything done to STOP these guys?!!!"

[Nostradammit]

5. Are you referring to the Cheney cabal?

[alanquatermass]

6. No. Nothing specific. Just our reaction (mine included) toward...

-- almost every single report of a thwarted or preempted terrorist attack.

[ejpoeta]

7. well it depends. in the case of many of the 'thwarted attacks' during the time of bush,

how many were actually nothing. if people are trying to hurt us, then stopping them is a good thing. but they catch people who were thinking about it but had no idea how to do it and then call it something that it isn't. they blow it up to make it sound like these guys had a bomb strapped to their chest and were about to set it off.

[alanquatermass]

9. Exactly! "How many were actually nothing?"

This is an excellent question. We don't know how many of the threats were genuine. Most of them? All of them? None of them? We don't know. But it is a question worth considering.

Personally, I'd be shocked if ALL of the terrorist threats being reported to us during Bush's watch were genuine.

And I'd be shocked if NONE of them were, too.

[RC]

15. And how many were orchestrated by people inside the bush administration.

[rfranklin]

10. Well, one does get a bit suspicious after being lied to so many times...

Remember how Ridge confessed that he was pressured to issue terrorist alerts to aid the political campaigns of the Bush cabal? Remember how many people branded as master terrorists turned out to be innocent cab drivers? Your concern is noted, but all governments tend to paper over their inadequacies and sometimes their criminalisty with glowing press releases.

[alanquatermass]

20. I hear ya, Franklin...

-- and your concern is noted, too. Governments lie, no question. But the fact remains (and this is where it starts getting complicated, at least for me) that there really ARE people in the world who would do us harm, a lot of them, and occasionally we get wind of their plans ahead of time, and how the hell does the Public ever separate the made-up from the genuine?

[SpiralHawk]

13. Torture violates international and US laws...and

frankly, it is anti-Christian, since Jesus Christ himself was cruelly tortured. Of course George AWOL Bush and his Republicon cronies 'claim' they are Christian, but their advocacy of, and practice of torture puts the lie to that claim. Torture is also, plainly, cruel and inhuman, and almost always ineffective since people being tortured will say anything to make it stop.

So he and thee may weasel all day long. It changes nothing. Torture is wrong. Honorable people and governments do not do it.

[Yeahyeah]

11. Back in the coffin,Bushula,Halloween's over.

[Solly Mack]

12. coddled and protected..the harsh lives of America's war criminals.

[rfranklin]

14. This is a clever twofer...innoculates Tony Blair as well as Bush...

In the past most of these utterances were about "American lives" (because American exceptualism means no other lives matter), but now we are saving lives of our dearest brothers in the UK, just as they are investigating torture by their military. This will be used by the right wing in Britain as a "get out of jail free" card.

[Zephie]

17. And yet, all the waterboarding in the world couldn't stop the Battle of Canary Wharf

Sorry Bush.

[Doctor_J]

18. Any chance all of Bush's BS can be placed in one thread?

Every lie from his book gets its own thread, cluttering up the board that's supposed to be for actual news.

[surrealAmerican]

19. I'm starting to think that a complete collection ...

... of his BS would fill the known universe.

[FlyByNight]

21. So, by that rationale...

how many Iraqi and American lives could've been saved if this sick asshole had been waterboarded? Just curious.

"I believe that decision saved lives." No proof; he just "believed" and that, apparently, is good enough. Why isn't this maladjusted bastard on trial for war crimes? And the Beltway Set wonders why people hate the federal government (or government, in general)?

Bush is a goddamned psychopath. He should be shunned.

:mad:

[Supersedeas]

22. Torture saves lives...sounds like A Few Good Men...Code Reds saves lives

[fascisthunter]

23. None... you Sociopathic Murderer