Bush officials ‘must be tried’ for torture

Senior US officials who authorised and carried out torture as part of former president George W Bush’s national security policy must be prosecuted, a top UN special investigator said.

Ben Emmerson, the UN’s special rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights, said in addition that all CIA and other US officials who used waterboarding and other torture techniques must be prosecuted.

He said the Senate Intelligence Committee report on the CIA’s harsh interrogation techniques at secret overseas facilities after the 9/11 terror attacks shows “there was a clear policy orchestrated at a high level within the Bush administration, which allowed to commit systematic crimes and gross violations of international human rights law”.