FresnoBee.com — The White House has finally admitted that the CIA has waterboarded prisoners in our custody and that President Bush could authorize further use of this tactic in the future.

Waterboarding is clearly against international law running contrary to the United Nations Convention Against Torture and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. There is also a history of the United States regarding waterboarding as a crime. In 1901, an American soldier was sentenced to 10 years of hard labor and in 1968 another American soldier was court-martialed for the use of waterboarding.

Our Constitution states that the president shall be removed from office on impeachment for high crimes and misdemeanors. Waterboarding is clearly a high crime. In just under a year we will have ourselves a new administration and we must never allow another one of our leaders to behave as President Bush has. Only his impeachment will show the next president that, as a nation, we demand that our leaders follow both national and international laws, while upholding the values this nation was founded on.

Jesse Esteves

Fresno