The United Nations independent expert on torture has criticized the Obama administration for refusing to launch an extensive probe of torture committed under former President George W. Bush. On Wednesday, Manfred Nowak, the UN special rapporteur on torture, said the administration risks laying the groundwork for more torture by refusing to investigate recent policies.

Manfred Nowak: “There are so many other reasons for the Obama administration to really establish a high-level, blue-ribbon commission or a special investigative — has all the investigative powers to really look into the practices. That means us to declassify still certain documents, so to tell the American public what happened, but those of the world, what were major human rights violations committed by the Bush administration and, in my case, of course, what kind of torture methods. Perhaps we don’t know everything.”