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Bush ‘approved’ of top advisers’ talks on interrogation.

ABC News recently revealed that President Bush’s most senior and trusted advisers met in “dozens of top-secret talks and meetings in the White House” beginning in 2002 to approve the use of “combined” interrogation techniques. In a new interview with ABC’s Martha Raddatz, Bush confirms that he approved of these meetings:

President Bush says he knew his top national security advisors discussed and approved specific details about how high-value al Qaeda suspects would be interrogated by the Central Intelligence Agency, according to an exclusive interview with ABC News Friday.

“Well, we started to connect the dots, in order to protect the American people.” Bush told ABC News White House correspondent Martha Raddatz. “And, yes, I’m aware our national security team met on this issue. And I approved.”

During the interview, Bush also defends using waterboarding against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, stating, “We had legal opinions that enabled us to do it. And, no, I didn’t have any problem at all trying to find out what Khalid Sheikh Mohammed knew.”

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