Cheney Offers Sharp Defense of C.I.A. Interrogation Tactics - NYTimes.com

WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday sharply criticized the Obama administration’s decision to investigate the abuse of prisoners held by the Central Intelligence Agency as he delivered a forceful defense of the full range of interrogation techniques used by intelligence officers.

Speaking just six days after Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. appointed a federal prosecutor to examine the abuse of detainees, Mr. Cheney described the use of waterboarding and other coercive methods — including threatening detainees with a gun and a drill — as legal and crucial elements of the counterterrorism war.

“I knew about the waterboarding, not specifically in any one particular case, but as a general policy that we had approved,” said Mr. Cheney, who noted that neither a gun nor a drill was actually used on detainees. “The fact of the matter is the Justice Department reviewed all those allegations several years ago.”

“The judgment was made then that there wasn’t anything that was improper or illegal,” said Mr. Cheney, who was speaking in an interview on Fox News Sunday.

Mr. Cheney said he also supported officers who strayed outside of the Justice Department rules and used unauthorized interrogation techniques, saying they did so to keep Americans safe. And he warned that Mr. Holder’s investigation would demoralize intelligence officers and discourage them from working aggressively to protect the nation.

“We ask these people to do some very difficult things,” Mr. Cheney said. “They do so at the direction of the president.” He added: “In this case, we had the specific legal authority of the Justice Department. And if they’re now going to be subject to being investigated and prosecuted by the next administration, nobody’s going to sign up for those kinds of missions.”



Wow I think that should be about enough of a confession to slap the cuffs on Cheney, wouldn't you think? Implicates Bush as well!