Bush defends his controversial White House policies Former US President G...

Bush defends his controversial White House policies

Former US President George W Bush has defended some of his most controversial decisions, in his first television interview since leaving office.

He told US network NBC that use of the interrogation technique waterboarding - simulated drowning - had prevented terrorist attacks and saved lives.

Mr Bush, who is publicising his memoir Decision Points, said the invasion of Iraq in 2003 was not wrong.

History would judge him a success, he added, but he would be dead by then.

"I just didn't want to get out there anymore," he told NBC's Matt Lauer of his absence from the media since he left the White House in January 2009.

"I didn't want to get back into what I call 'the swamp'," he said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11715774