The waterboarding backlash: Bush is denounced by security chiefs after he defends use of torture
Kim Howells, who was chairman of the Commons intelligence and security committee, said: ‘I doubt torture actually produced information which was instrumental in preventing those plots coming to fruition. I’m not convinced of that.’
Former Attorney General Lord Goldsmith said: ‘I know President Bush has made these claims. I don’t know what evidence there is for it. I didn’t hear that at the time.’
Lord MacDonald, the former Director of Public Prosecutions, said: ‘These stories about waterboarding thwarting attacks on Canary Wharf and Heathrow – I’ve never seen anything to substantiate these claims. These claims are to be treated with a great deal of scepticism.’
However, security sources conceded that information passed by the Americans in the years after 9/11 did help prevent some Al Qaeda attacks in the UK.