(Image source: The New York Times)
 

BY CHRISTINA HARTMAN

Human rights activists have long been trying to figure out exactly who gave the CIA the okay to waterboard Khalid Sheikh Mohammed -- the architect of the 9/11 terror attacks.  Now -- they have their answer.


In his memoir “Decision Points” -- due out next week -- former President George W. Bush says he approved the practice now considered torture by the Obama administration.


The New York Times has an excerpt of the memoir -- where the former president admits to using the tactic -- he says -- out of necessity. He writes...

“Had I not authorized waterboarding on senior al Qaeda leaders, I would have had to accept a greater risk that the country would be attacked...”

In a special for NBC, Matt Lauer sat down with the former president in his first television interview since he left office. Lauer asks whether the Bush administration was overzealous in its pursuit of national security.


WILLIAMS: “It took two wars. American lives, billions of dollars. ... And government eavesdropping and waterboarding. Did it take too much?”
BUSH: “We didn't have an attack. 3,000 people died on September 11th and I vowed that I would do my duty to protect the American people and they didn't hit us again.”


Many in the international community suggest Mr. Bush’s admission could have legal consequences in the future. But Attorney General Eric Holder and President Obama have not indicated an interest in pursuing legal action against the former president. And a Georgetown University law professor tells The Washington Post -- it’ll probably stay that way.

"The fact that [Bush] did admit it suggests he believes he is politically immune from being held accountable. . . . But politics can change."


But legal action or not - The Hill’s Anne Penketh says there’s no excuse for U.S. officials to have ever practiced waterboarding.

“...it shines the spotlight on the U.S. record of double standards regarding international law. Waterboarding is wrong, wrong, wrong. It’s torture, and George Bush knows it.”


Still - a former secretary of defense under President Bill Clinton tells MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, in the months after 9/11 -- Mr. Bush did what he felt he had to do.


“I don't think that there was a profound consideration of what actions were acceptable and not acceptable. I think that as the president said, he was determined to do whatever he could. Now, I think as a matter of principle, we say that waterboarding is no longer practiced. There were many who feel that it was torture. The president obviously feels that it was not.”


Finally, Bloomberg’s Al Hunt suggests either way -- the revelation isn’t likely to change the former president’s legacy.

“George W. Bush remains a decidedly unpopular figure in America. People blame him for a lot of the economic woes we are in. Do not support his foreign policy. He scores a very negatively.”

 

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