Amnesty International: prosecute Bush for admitted waterboarding

The United States must prosecute former President George W. Bush for torture if his admission in his memoir, Decision Points that he authorized waterboarding holds true, rights group Amnesty International said on Wednesday.

Bush admitted to authorizing the practice, a form of torture where prisoners are immobilized with their head inclined downwards, while water is poured onto the face, causing the subject to experience sensations of drowning.

He said that the practice was limited to three detainees and that his legal adviser told him that the practice did “not fall within the anti-torture act.”

Amnesty International’s Senior Director Claudio Cordone said in a statement: “Under international law, anyone involved in torture must be brought to justice, and that does not exclude former President George W. Bush. If his admission is substantiated, the U.S.A. has the obligation to prosecute him. In the absence of a U.S. investigation, other states must step in and carry out such an investigation themselves.”

The Center for Constitutional Rights and the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights are committed to pursuing criminal accountability for the authorization. In a joint statement, they said:

As Attorney General Eric Holder stated during his confirmation hearings, waterboarding is torture. Calling these acts what they are, torture, is not the result of differing legal ‘opinion,’ as Bush states; it is a matter of law. Harold Koh, the State Department Legal Adviser, confirmed this in Geneva last week, stating during the U.S. Universal Periodic Review that “the Obama administration defines waterboarding as torture as a matter of law” and it is not a ‘policy choice.’

There are no circumstances or excuses—including ‘national security’—under domestic and international law that allow for the use of torture. And there is an obligation to investigate and prosecute torture.

Bush’s decision to authorize torture and other illegal acts against detainees held in U.S. custody led to the use of torture at Guantánamo, in Iraq, Afghanistan, and in secret prisons by U.S. forces, and contractors, certain allies and the national forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. His decision led to Abu Ghraib.

Debates as to whether or not waterboarding of detainees led to intelligence or make the nation ’safer’ are not relevant questions. The only valid question is: can we torture? The answer is no.

Without accountability it is impossible to ensure that such actions are never authorized by any future president or other U.S. official. No immunity protects Bush from prosecution for acts which violate federal and international law. The Pinochet precedent demonstrates that the law eventually catches up with former presidents—even those who flout their impunity.

Bush states that accountability ‘would set a terrible precedent for our democracy.’

We answer that not doing so is failing our democracy—yet again. We therefore urge the Obama administration and the Department of Justice to act upon their recognition that waterboarding is torture as a matter of law, to investigate and prosecute acts of torture and other serious violations carried out by officials of the former administration, including George W. Bush.

But we will not wait any longer for the Obama administration to act—we will continue seeking justice and accountability under the principle of universal jurisdiction and as counsel in the ongoing investigation in Spain.

Waterboarding was banned by Bush’s successor, President Barack Obama shortly after he took office.