Rove defends waterboarding

LONDON, March 12 (UPI) -- Karl Rove, adviser to former U.S. President George W. Bush, praised harsh interrogation tactics, saying they saved lives by helping prevent terror attacks.

"I'm proud that we kept the world safer than it was by the use of these techniques," Rove told the BBC in an interview published Friday, saying the tactics "broke the will of these terrorists."

One technique, waterboarding, which simulates drowning, shouldn't be considered torture, Rove said. In 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama banned waterboarding.

In 2008, Michael Hayden, who was director of the CIA, told Congress waterboarding was used on three high-profile al-Qaida detainees and hadn't been used in five years. One of the detainees was Khalid Sheik Mohammed, a key suspect in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on U.S. soil.

Waterboarding was sanctioned in memos by Bush administration lawyers in August 2002.

A less severe form of the technique was used on the three suspects when they were interrogated at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Rove 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 such as flying airplanes into Heathrow and into London, bringing down aircraft over the Pacific, flying an airplane into the tallest building in Los Angeles and other plots," Rove said.

"Yes, I'm proud that we kept the world safer than it was by the use of these techniques," he said. "They're appropriate; they're in conformity with our international requirements and with U.S. law."