Al-Qaeda: Dick Cheney Calls for the Return of Enhanced Interrogation
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Harsh interrogation methods such as waterboarding played a role in tracking down Osama bin Laden and should be reinstated, former US vice president Dick Cheney said.

Another top member of the Bush administration, former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, credited the use of so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" with yielding "a major fraction" of US intelligence on al-Qaeda and called ending them a "mistake."

In one of the first acts after entering the White House in 2009, President Barack Obama suspended such methods, equating them with torture and saying they represented all that was wrong with the Bush-era "war on terror."

But the killing of bin Laden, or more exactly the way the intelligence was gathered that led the CIA to track him down, has reopened a raging controversy in the United States over their use.

Cheney, speaking on the "Fox News Sunday" program, said top intelligence officials had stated that "some of the early leads" that helped agents find bin Laden had come thanks to the harsh interrogation techniques used on terror suspects.

"All have said one way or the other that the enhanced interrogation program played a role," he said. "My guess is that's probably the case that it contributed, just as did a number of other factors."

Asked whether the methods should be reinstated if the United States were to capture a new high-value target, Cheney replied: "I certainly would advocate it. I'd be a strong supporter of it." » | Telegraph’s Foreign Staff | Monday, May 09, 2011

George Bush Adviser Karl Rove: I Am 'Proud' of Waterboarding
THE TELEGRAPH: Karl Rove, the senior adviser to George W. Bush, has said he is "proud" of the interrogation methods used by US intelligence services such as waterboarding.

He said they had helped prevent terrorist attacks.

Mr Rove also told the BBC in an interview that he did not believe waterboarding – a simulated drowning method – amounted to torture.

He said: "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. I am proud that we kept the world safer than it was by the use of these techniques. They are appropriate, they are in conformity with our international requirements and with US law."

"Flying aeroplanes into Heathrow and into London ... bringing down aircraft over the Pacific, flying an aeroplane into the tallest building in Los Angeles" were all terror plots that were thwarted by tough interrogation, he insisted. >>> | Friday, March 12, 2010

Rove 'Proud' of US Waterboarding Terror Suspects
BBC: A senior adviser to former US President George W Bush has defended tough interrogation techniques, saying their use helped prevent terrorist attacks.

In a BBC interview, Karl Rove, who was known as "Bush's brain", said he "was proud we used techniques that broke the will of these terrorists".

He said waterboarding, which simulates drowning, should not be considered torture. Read on (with video) >>> | Friday, March 12, 2010

BBC: Profile: Karl Rove >>>