US Must Begin Criminal Investigation of Torture After Bush's Repeated Admissions of Approving Waterboarding

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.