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Bush: 'Damn right' I personally ordered waterboarding
President George W. Bush admits for the first time in his new memoir that he personally approved the use of waterboarding, a technique in which an interrogator simulates drowning on a suspect. The method, which most describe as torture, has since been banned by the Justice Department.
In his book, "Decision Points," Bush asserts that he was asked by the Central Intelligence Agency whether he would support the agency's waterboarding of Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the alleged 9/11 mastermind.
"Damn right," Bush says that he said.
The Washington Post's R. Jeffrey Smith avers that a source close to Bush says he would have done the same thing again "to save lives," though there's been no proof produced that the torture technique has.
"Bush previously had acknowledged endorsing what he described as the CIA's "enhanced" interrogation techniques - a term meant to encompass irregular, coercive methods - after Justice Department officials and other top aides assured him they were legal," Smith notes.