Former President George W. Bush knew and was "intimately involved" in the CIA's practice of torture, former Bush adviser and Republican strategist Karl Rove confirmed on Fox News Sunday.
Despite arguments made in the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee's report that the CIA had not alerted Bush and other top officials about the extent of the abuses until 2006, Rove told the morning show: "He made the decision."
"He was presented, I believe, 12 techniques, he authorized the use of 10 of them, including waterboarding," Rove added.
The Senate report, released on Tuesday, documented such abuses as "rectal rehydration" and "water dousing," as well as threatening to kill or sexually abuse family members of detainees—acts which the committee said were beyond the scope of what was portrayed by the CIA to congressional overseers and the Bush administration.
Rove argues that this alleged inaccuracy indicates that the report authors had insufficiently consulted Bush administration officials when researching the torture program.
Citing the former president's recent book Decision Points, Rove confirmed that Bush was fully briefed on all of the CIA's tactics in 2002, early on in the torture program. "He was briefed and intimately involved in the decision," said Rove.
The Republican insider's admission comes as a growing number of rights groups and others are calling on President Obama and lawmakers to prosecute those responsible for the abuses.
