In his upcoming memoirs, former President George W. Bush claimed that after enhanced interrogation techniques proved successful in gleaning information from al Qaeda leaders, “Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet asked if he had permission to use enhanced interrogation techniques including waterboarding on [9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh] Mohammed. Bush exposes his inner thoughts on what led him to reach this decision: ‘I thought about my meeting with [journalist] Danny Pearl’s widow, who was pregnant with his son when he was murdered. I thought about the 2,971 people stolen from their families by al Qaeda on 9/11. And I thought about my duty to protect my country from another act of terror. *Damn right,* I said.’ ”
– Adam Aigner-Treworgy, John Helton, Ed Hornick, Gabriella Schwarz, and Rebecca Sherman, “Bush on Waterboarding: ‘Damn Right,'” CNN, Nov. 5, 2010