Bush on Waterboarding: 'I'd Do It Again'

"Yeah, we waterboarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed," Bush said. "I'd do it again to save lives."

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AOL Times
(June 3) -- Former President George W. Bush says he has no regrets that the mastermind of 9/11 was waterboarded while under interrogation, and he would allow it again "to save lives."

Bush made the comment in a speech Wednesday to the Economic Club of Grand Rapids, Mich.

"Yeah, we waterboarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed," Bush said. "I'd do it again to save lives."

Waterboarding is a technique used by CIA interrogators under the Bush administration, in which the suspect's head is either submerged underwater or water is poured into his or her airways, to simulate drowning. It's now banned under the Obama administration, which considers it torture.

Mohammed is believed to be the most senior al-Qaida suspect in U.S. custody. He was captured in Pakistan in 2003 and is one of several detainees who endured waterboarding under their American captors.

In his speech Wednesday, Bush also defended his decision to invade Iraq in 2003.