In his autobiography, Mr Bush focuses on 14 major decisions of his life and presidency British lives were saved by the use of information obtained from terrorist suspects by “waterboarding”, according to former US President George W Bush.
He said the interrogation technique – which simulates drowning – had helped to break up plots to attack Heathrow airport and Canary Wharf.
Mr Bush’s memoirs, Decision Points, are being serialised in the Times.
Mr Bush also says that he offered then Prime Minister Tony Blair the chance to opt out of sending UK troops into Iraq.
In an interview with the paper he said: “Three people were waterboarded and I believe that decision saved lives.”
He confirmed he had authorised the use of waterboarding to extract information from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the al-Qaeda mastermind behind the 9/11 attack.
Mr Bush tells the paper: “Damn right!
“We capture the guy, the chief operating officer of al-Qaeda, who kills 3,000 people. We felt he had the information about another attack.
“He says: ‘I’ll talk to you when I get my lawyer’. I say, ‘what options are available and legal?'”
‘Important ally’
In the book, Mr Bush writes: “Their interrogations helped break up plots to attack American diplomatic facilities abroad, Heathrow airport and Canary Wharf in London, and multiple targets in the United States.”
The UK government has long rejected the use of waterboarding, saying it regards it as torture.
In the interview, the 64-year-old former president described his close relationship with Tony Blair, but was dismissive of public opinion in Britain about the war in Iraq.
“It doesn’t matter how people perceive me in England. It just doesn’t matter any more. And frankly, at times, it didn’t matter then,” he said.
Mr Bush said when Mr Blair faced a possible vote of no confidence in Parliament on the eve of war, he offered him the chance to opt out of sending British troops into Iraq.
He said that “rather than lose the government, I would much rather have Tony and his wisdom and his strategic thinking as the prime minister of a strong and important ally”.
However, Mr Blair told him: “I’m in. If it costs the government, fine.”
Mr Bush said he still has “a sickening feeling” about the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
But he defended his decision to invade Iraq, saying Iraqi citizens are better off without the former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, whom he calls a “homicidal dictator”, adding the US is also better off without Saddam pursuing biological or chemical weapons.
But Mr Bush admits that he was shocked when no weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq.
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