Bush defends US interrogation methods

Nov 1, 2007, 20:30 GMT

US President George W Bush on Thursday defended aggressive CIA interrogations of suspected terrorists, saying the methods are legal and necessary. EPA/KEVIN DIETSCH / POOL

Washington - US President George W Bush on Thursday defended aggressive CIA interrogations of suspected terrorists, saying the methods are legal and necessary.

Attention has refocussed on the CIA programme as Bush's nominee for attorney general, former federal judge Michael Mukasey, faces growing opposition in the Senate because he declined to take a legal stand on the mock-drowning technique known as waterboarding.

Bush turned up the rhetoric Thursday and pressed lawmakers to approve Mukasey to head the Justice Department, saying the nation could not afford to be without a top law enforcement official.

'Unfortunately, on too many issues, some in Congress are behaving as if America is not at war,' Bush said in a speech to a conservative Washington think tank.

Bush said Mukasey has not been briefed on the secret CIA programme and he insisted: 'The procedures used in this programme are safe, they are lawful and they are necessary.'

Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy, announcing Thursday that he would vote against Mukasey, said the Justice nominee had failed to show independence from the Bush administration.

'Waterboarding is torture. Period. Yet Judge Mukasey refuses to say so,' Kennedy said on the Senate floor.

If confirmed, Mukasey would replace Alberto Gonzales, a Bush confidant who quit in September. As a White House lawyer before becoming attorney general, Gonzales played a key role in drafting policy for aggressive interrogations that critics call torture.

As in the past, the White House said it would not reveal any techniques used by the CIA because that could help terror suspects prepare for interrogations. Bush says the US does not torture.

CIA director Michael Hayden this week called the intelligence gained from terrorist suspects 'irreplaceable' in the fight against al-Qaeda.

Fewer than 100 'hardened terrorists' have gone through interrogations since they began with the capture of Abu Zubaidah, a senior al-Qaeda operative in US custody since 2002, Hayden said.

Of those, less than a third were subjected to 'special questioning,' he said.

Bush also pressed Congress to extend an anti-terrorism law expiring in February that critics say gives US intelligence agencies unprecedented powers to eavesdrop without a court order on Americans' communications.

Failure to extend the Protect America Act would put US security at risk, he said.

'The terrorists are communicating with each other and are plotting new attacks. We need to know what they're planning,' Bush said.