UN Urges Full US Torture Investigation

The United Nations has called on the United States to conduct a full investigation into torture under the administration of former US President George W. Bush.

The UN special rapporteur on torture, Juan Ernesto Mendez, urged Washington on Tuesday to prosecute offenders as well as senior officials who ordered the abuse of prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

"The United States has a duty to investigate every act of torture. Unfortunately, we haven't seen much in the way of accountability," Mendez told Reuters.

The Argentinean diplomat also said he plans to visit Iraq to investigate what he called a "very widespread practice of torture" of detainees by US-led forces, following the 2003 occupation of the war-torn country.

The new UN expert who, himself, is a victim of prison torture during Argentina's dictatorship in the 1970s, also plans to visit Guantanamo prison.

Mendez says he wants to conduct his own probe there on condition that US officials allow him to interview prisoners still being held at Guantanamo by the Obama administration.

He also condemned Bush's comments in his recently published memoir, "Decision Points."

In his book, Bush admitted that he personally approved a request by CIA agents to use waterboarding and other forms of torture in the interrogation of so-called "terror suspects" held in secret prisons. He claims that his decision helped save lives.

Bush's autobiography, which has been much publicized in the mainstream media, is considered as an attempt to politically resurrect the ex-president's badly-tainted reputation during his term.

Among Bush's crimes are unleashing two wars on Afghanistan and Iraq following the September, 11, 2001 event. The ongoing conflicts have killed over a million Afghan and Iraqi civilians and left nearly 6,000 US soldiers dead.

The unpopular former US leader is also blamed for the torture of hundreds of Iraqis, Afghans and other Muslims in US detention facilities such as Abu Ghraib in Iraq, Bagram in Afghanistan and Guantanamo in Cuba.

Last week, Amnesty International, stated that the United States must prosecute Bush for torture after a criminal probe into his admissions.

During recent month, the United States' human rights records have come under inspection.

In an unprecedented move two weeks ago, the United Nations Human Rights Council launched an investigation into the country's rights violations for the first time in Geneva.