Former President Jimmy Carter has accused the Bush administration of committing torture in violation of international law. Carter made the comments in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.

Wolf Blitzer: “President Bush said as recently as this week the United States does not torture detainees.”

Jimmy Carter: “That’s not an accurate statement, if you use the international norms of torture, as has always been honored, certainly in the last 60 years, since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was promulgated. But you can make your own definition of human rights and say we don’t violate them. And we can — you can make your own definition of torture and say we don’t violate it. But obviously” —

Wolf Blitzer: “But from your definition, you believe the United States, under this administration, has used torture.”

Jimmy Carter: “I don’t think it; I know it.”

Carter also weighed in on the 2008 presidential election. He called former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani “foolish” for backing a possible U.S. attack on Iran. Carter also criticized Senators Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois for refusing to pledge to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq by 2012. But Carter saved his harshest criticism for Vice President Dick Cheney. In an interview with BBC News the next day, Carter called Cheney a “militant” and a “disaster for our country.”