U.S. Must Begin Criminal Investigation of Torture After Bush’s Repeated Admissions of Approving Waterboarding

Human rights organization cites former British minister’s refute that torture did not save British lives

(Washington, DC) Amnesty International repeated its call for a criminal investigation into the role of former U.S. President George W. Bush and other officials in the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” against detainees held in secret U.S. custody after the former president again admitted authorizing their use.

In his memoirs, published yesterday, and in an interview on NBC News broadcast on November 8, 2010, the former President again confirmed his personal involvement in authorizing “waterboarding” and other techniques against “high value detainees.”

However claims by President Bush that waterboarding saved were dismissed by senior UK officials who were familiar with counter-terrorism activities at the time.

"According to news reports, Kim Howells, the former Head of the House of Commons Security and Intelligence Committee has already refuted President Bush's claim that waterboarding saved British lives," said Tom Parker, Amnesty International USA policy director for (counter) terror and human rights. “Claims of torture’s value keep evaporating under scrutiny but there’s simply no question that waterboarding and other forms of torture are prohibited by international law.”

 Water-boarding was far from the only technique alleged to have been used against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zubayhdah and other detainees. Other techniques included prolonged nudity, threats, exposure to cold temperatures, stress positions, physical assaults, prolonged use of shackles, and sleep.

Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with more than 2.8 million supporters, activists and volunteers in more than 150 countries campaigning for human rights worldwide. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public, and works to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied.

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For more information, please go to www.amnestyusa.org

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