- guardian.co.uk, February 15 2008
- Ewen MacAskill in Washington
US president George Bush at the White House in Washington. Photograph: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP
President George Bush cited the July 7 bombings in London to justify his support for waterboarding, an interrogation technique widely regarded as torture.
In an interview with the BBC broadcast yesterday, he said information obtained from alleged terrorists helped save lives and the families of the July 7 victims would understand that.
Bush claims that waterboarding, which simulates drowning, is not torture and is threatening to veto a congressional bill that would ban it.
Bush defended the existence of the Guantanamo Bay prison, where many of those caught in the US 'war on terrorism' are held, and claimed that the US was a defender of human rights. He insisted the US still occupied the moral high ground worldwide.
He was more forthcoming than normal in defence of his legacy, reflecting that he has less than a year to go. He stood by the decision to remove Saddam Hussein and claimed he would be vindicated as long as the US did not leave Iraq prematurely.
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