In his memoirs, former President George W. “Bush writes that waterboarding was highly effective, providing ‘large amounts of information.’ ‘No doubt the procedure was tough, but medical experts assured the CIA that it did no lasting harm,’ he writes. ‘I knew an interrogation programme this sensitive and controversial would one day become public. When it did, we would open ourselves up to criticism that America had compromised our moral values. I would have preferred that we get the information another way. But the choice between security and values was real. Their interrogations helped break up plots to attack American diplomatic facilities abroad, Heathrow airport and Canary Wharf in London, and multiple targets in the United States.’ ”
– Haroon Siddique and Chris McGreal, “Waterboarding is Torture, Downing Street Confirms,” The Guardian, Nov. 9, 2010