Perhaps many have already seen this, but I just couldn’t resist posting these comments.
Vice President “Don’t call me Darth” Dick Cheney was recently interviewed on, at least in part, the subject of torture. Specifically, he was asked about the practice of waterboarding.
The interview, in part, went as follows:
Hennen: I’ve had people call and say, “Please, let the vice president know that if it takes dunking a terrorist in water, we’re all for it, if it saves American lives.” Again, this debate seems a little silly given the threat we face, would you agree?
Cheney: I do agree. And I think the terrorist threat, for example, with respect to our ability to interrogate high-value detainees like Khalid Sheik Mohammed, that’s been a very important tool that we’ve had to be able to secure the nation. Khalid Sheik Mohammed provided us with enormously valuable information about how many there are, about how they plan, what their training processes are and so forth. We’ve learned a lot. We need to be able to continue that.
Hennen: Would you agree a dunk in water is a no-brainer if it can save lives?
Cheney: Well, it’s a no-brainer for me, but for a while there I was criticized as being the vice president for torture. We don’t torture. That’s not what we’re involved in. We live up to our obligations in international treaties that we’re party to and so forth. But the fact is, you can have a fairly robust interrogation program without torture, and we need to be able to do that.
Pretty clear, no? Don’t call me Darth, without condition, stated his approval for torture of our detainees. Or maybe not.
The follow up:
Snow: The vice president didn’t make any comments about water boarding.
Q: That was what the question was about.
Snow: No, the question was a loosely worded question. Now the vice president never talks about questioning techniques in a theoretical or a real manner. We just don’t talk about that.
Q: The question was, “Would you agree a dunk in the water is a no-brainer if it can save lives?” Cheney: “It’s a no-brainer for me.”
Snow: Yes, but that is not a question — do the words “water boarding” appear there?
Q: No, they don’t, but …
Q: What was he talking about?
Snow: He did not interpret it as water boarding.
Q: Come on. What is that supposed to mean? Let’s be real here.
Snow: I am being real here. Do you really think the vice president is going to talk about water boarding when we have said many times …
Q: I don’t know.
Snow: The answer is no.
Q: No, he said he doesn’t support torture, but there was sort of a wink implied with the …
Snow: No, there’s not. Let me just say one more time, let me be very clear, and then you can go at me as many times and I’ll say the same thing over and over, which is: We don’t talk about techniques, that would include water boarding. He neither confirms nor denies its use; neither supports nor shows a lack of support for it. He is not, that was not the context that he thought it was being asked in.
Q: He didn’t explicitly talk about …
Snow: Not explicitly or implicitly.
Q: But he certainly…
Snow: No, you think he did. A reasonable person interpreting this when the questioner …
Q: A reasonable person interpreting this …
Snow: Well, … I’m telling you what the vice president’s view is, which is it wasn’t about water boarding and he wasn’t talking about it. Period.
Q: Then what was it about? What is a “dunk in the water” then by vice president?
Snow: It’s a dunk in the water. It’s a dunk in the water, as I said.
Q: To elicit answers?
Snow: No, look, you can look at the transcript.
Q: So the detainees go swimming?
Snow: I don’t know. We’ll have to find out.
Q: It just doesn’t make sense.
Snow: No, what doesn’t make sense is I’ve already told you what his position is, and also you know as a matter of common sense that the vice president of the United States is not going to be talking about water boarding. Never would, never does, never will.
Q: We know that’s your policy, but did the vice president slip up and …
Snow: No. Are you kidding? You think Dick Cheney is going to slip up on something like — no. Come on.
Is that clear now?
