by Maureen Fiedler
Former President George W. Bush is soon to publish a new memoir called Decision Points. According to advance information, he admits in the book that he authorized the use of waterboarding on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, although he rejects the label "torture" for that procedure.
Bush may reject that label, but international law and international legal experts definitely categorize it as torture. In fact, the United States government prosecuted U.S. soldiers after the Spanish-American War and Japanese soldiers after World War II for waterboarding.
According to Tom Malinowski, the Washington director for Human Rights Watch, "Waterboarding is broadly seen by legal experts around the world as torture, and it is universally prosecutable as a crime. The fact that none of us expect any serious consequences from this admission is what is most interesting."
David Cole, a law professor at Georgetown University was quoted in the Washington Post: "The fact that he [George Bush] did admit it suggests he believes he is politically immune from being held accountable ... But politics can change."
And they should change. A former president of the United States has, in essence, just admitted to being a war criminal. And he’s not even sorry.
