George Bush should be waterboarded for charity says Senator

A Rhode Island Democratic politician has said he will donate $100 (£63) to charity for every second former President George W Bush withstands waterboarding.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...ys-Senator.html

Last Updated: 10:07PM BST 21 May 2009

The state representative, Rod Driver, also included former Vice President Dick Cheney and ex-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in his offer. He sent letters to all three.

Mr Bush's administration allowed the interrogation technique, which simulates drowning, to be used on terror suspects. Mr Driver says that, if the former president is so confident it is not torture, he should try it for himself.

His offer was first reported on Thursday in The Westerly Sun.

A spokesman for Mr Bush did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Mr Cheney has defended waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods, saying they yielded important information.

The offer came as Mr Cheney accused Barack Obama of putting American lives at risk in a disdainful broadside just minutes after the president gave an impassioned defence of his anti-terror policies.

Americans were offered startlingly contrasting visions of how to deal with the threat of militant Islamists in rival addresses by the two men, who were speaking less than a mile from each other in Washington.

Mr Obama said: "Unfortunately, faced with an uncertain threat, our government made a series of hasty decisions.... our government made decisions based on fear rather than foresight... our government trimmed facts and evidence to fit ideological predispositions."

Mr Cheney responded that there had been no terrorist attack on the United States in the 2,689 days after the al-Qaeda strikes of 2001 because it had "followed through" and "stayed true to our word" by going on the offensive.

"For all the partisan anger that still lingers, our administration will stand up well in history, not despite our actions after 9/11, but because of them," he said

In what was billed in the US media as the "clash of the Titans", Mr Obama's speech was followed within minutes by Mr Cheney.