Waterboard torture ‘stopped terrorist attacks on London’

Defiant: Karl Rove, George Bush’s election supremo, said waterboarding was justified
12 April 2012

One of George Bush's most senior advisers today defended the use of waterboarding as a vital weapon against terrorism.

Karl Rove, the former US President's chief election strategist, said he was "proud" that the Republican administration had permitted aggressive interrogation methods which "broke the will" of terrorists.

He insisted that waterboarding, which was used on 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and has since been outlawed by Barack Obama, did not amount to torture.

Human rights organisations and many overseas governments, including Britain's, oppose the use of the technique but, in a BBC interview, Mr Rove claimed that waterboarding was both legal and justified.

"I'm proud that we used techniques that broke the will of these terrorists and gave us valuable information that allowed us to foil plots such as flying aeroplanes into Heathrow and into London, bringing down aircraft over the Pacific, flying an aeroplane into the tallest building in Los Angeles and other plots," he said.

"Yes, I'm proud that we kept the world safer than it was, by the use of these techniques. They're appropriate, they're in conformity with our international requirements and with US law."

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