Bush personally authorized water torture; memoir
The Washington Post reports that, in his memoir, President Bush admits to personally authorizing waterboarding Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
The former president defends his handling of some of the most intense controversies of his presidency, acknowledging at one point that he personally approved the waterboarding, or simulated drowning, of alleged Sept. 11 plotter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a practice that the CIA has since forsworn and both President Obama and Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. have described as torture barred by international law.
“Damn right,” Bush said he told the CIA when they sought his permission.
Good thing for Bush that the Constitution protects Presidents from ever being brought to account for their abuses.
Bush also reports that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld offered to resign after Abu Ghraib and Bush refused:
Bush writes that he still considers the war justified and said he believes it left America safer, despite the revelations of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib that prompted Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to offer his resignation privately to Bush. He said he turned Rumsfeld’s offer down because he feared the change in leadership would send a bad signal to U.S. troops.
November 3rd, 2010