Waterboarding was torture, admits former Bush official

The US State Department's former number two said the practice of waterboarding terror suspects was torture and he hoped he would have had the courage to resign had he known the CIA was using the interrogation technique.

However, Richard Armitage, the deputy secretary of state during the Bush administration, told Al Jazeera English television he did not believe CIA officials who took part in waterboarding and other forms of harsh interrogation should be prosecuted.