(Newswire.net — December 11, 2014) — Former Vice President Dick Cheney heavily criticized the controversial CIA’s Intense Interrogation Program report. “I think it is a terrible report, deeply flawed,” Cheney said on Fox News. “It’s a classic example of where politicians get together and throw professionals under the bus.”
The Democrats and their staffs on the Senate Intelligence Committee drafted the 6,000 pages classified document, which Cheney admitted he didn’t read. He also said he didn’t read the 500-page declassified and redacted executive summary, however, he said its findings were “deeply flawed’.
“The notion that the agency was operating on a rogue basis was just a flat out lie,” Cheney said.
Though he said that the practice of ‘rectal rehydration’ mentioned in the report, ‘was not one of the authorized or approved techniques,’ Cheney insisted the so-called enhanced interrogation techniques were all legally justified.
He went so far in explaining the legitimacy of the ‘intense interrogation’ program, he undermines his boss’ G. W. Bush allegation that he was “kept in the dark”.
“He was in fact an integral part of the program. He had to approve it before we moved forward with it,“ Cheney said. “He knew everything he needed to know and wanted to know about the program.”
The 6,000 page CIA Torture Report detailng the brutal and graphic descriptions of the techniques, have dominated the headlines and the ‘not all approved but legitimate’ techniques, have been labeled “torture” by President Obama, Cheney says critics have lost sight of the context.
“How nice do you want to be to the murderers of 3,000 people on 9/11?” Cheney said particularly bothered by criticism over the treatment of Khalid Sheilk Mohammad, the alleged mastermind of 9/11 attacks.
“He is in our possession, we know he’s the architect [of the attacks], what are we supposed to do? Kiss him on both cheeks?“ Cheney said.
When asked whether the ends justify the means when it comes to brutal interrogations, Cheney said, “absolutely.”
“I’d do it again in a minute,” he said.