“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 had actually been 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.
–Cheney Offers Sharp Defense of C.I.A. Interrogation Tactics, NYT
By the way, Mr. Cheney, waterboarding is torture.
“…neither a gun nor a drill had actually been used on detainees.” Which coming from him means they did shoot and drill people. Much like the criminal suspect who inadvertently volunteers information which he would not know otherwise while trying to flimflam the interviewing detectives.
It peeves me no end how for years I was sitting right here ranting about how all the pieces fit together and that no matter what they were saying we were torturing people, and the world said “No. We aren’t torturing people. America doesn’t torture.” And slowly but surely everything I’d imagined PLUS MORE has been coming out to be true.
And now he’s sitting there on TV and admitting it. ADMITTING IT casually as if “So what?!” So now it’s still America doesn’t torture, because that what WE do isn’t torture, no matter what it is. You know, even if it fits the classic definition of torture.
If the current administration doesn’t do something hard-nosed about what the past administration did, America can kiss any remaining moral standing it might still have goodbye. I mean, we have a former vice-president flapping his jaws on national TV telling the world we did things the rest of the world knows full well is torture no matter what fancy name we chose to give it.