By DPA
Washington : US President George W. Bush Friday defended the use of harsh interrogation measures by US security officials, saying they helped the government “better protect the American people”.
In remarks to reporters in the Oval Office at the White House, Bush said “highly trained professionals” carried out the questioning of “these extremists and terrorists”.
The agents are “trained in this kind of work … to get information” that has helped protect the American people, Bush said.
“The techniques have been fully disclosed to the appropriate members of the US Congress,” Bush said. “The American people expect their government to protect them from further attacks.”
Bush was responding to demands Thursday by Democratic lawmakers that the White House disclose the secret memos that authorised harsh CIA interrogation techniques.
Less than a third of some 100 detainees were subject to aggressive interrogations in a CIA programme to prevent new terrorist attacks on the US, Frances Townsend, Bush’s homeland security adviser, disclosed Thursday.
His remarks followed a report in The New York Times alleging that a Bush administration memo in 2005 explicitly authorised tactics