Dick Cheney says U.S. did not torture terror suspects
"Torture
is what the al Qaeda terrorists did to 3,000 Americans
on 9/11," former
Vice President...
Former Vice President
Dick Cheney on Sunday dismissed a Senate report on harsh interrogation
practices used by the Central Intelligence Agency, saying officials "very
carefully” avoided going past the legal threshold for torture.
"Torture is what
the al Qaeda terrorists did to 3,000 Americans on 9/11," Cheney said on
NBC's "Meet The Press." "There is no comparison between that and
what we did with respect to enhanced interrogation."
The CIA’s
interrogation techniques following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have
come under fire following a Senate report detailing how agency operatives used
waterboarding and rectal feeding to try to obtain information from suspects.
“Waterboarding, the
way we did it, was not torture,” the former vice president claimed.
As for the practice of
“rectal rehydration,” in which food was pureed and given anally to prisoners,
Cheney replied, “What was done here was not one of the techniques
approved."
But Cheney added that
such a technique was done for “medical reasons.”
Cheney also hit back
at claims that both he and President George W. Bush were kept in the dark about
the CIA program, saying the White House clearly outlined acceptable practices.
"This man knew
what we were doing," Cheney said of Bush. "He authorized it. He
approved it."
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