Cheney Has "No Regrets" Over Interrogation Policies, War On Terror (VIDEO)

Former Vice President Dick Cheney said on Sunday, that he had no regrets about the course of actions he and the Bush administration pursued when it came to interrogating suspected terrorists or, more broadly, waging the war on terror.

"No regrets," Cheney declared during an appearance on CBS' "Face the Nation." "I think it was absolutely the right thing to do. I am convinced, absolutely convinced, that we saved thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of lives."

Watch:

The interview was another in a wave of post-White House remarks from the controversial former vice president. On Sunday, Cheney insisted that he was speaking out because "the issues are so important." President Obama, he added, had "moved to take down a lot of those policies we put in place to keep the nation safe for eight years."

His public appearances have not been without controversy. Cheney has often taken the hardest of partisan lines against the current president and voiced the loudest public defenses of harsh interrogation techniques. Sunday was much of the same, with the former VP insisting the Bush administration had tried less controversial interrogation approaches to limited effect.

"Remember what happened here," he said. "We had captured these people. We had pursued interrogation in a normal way. We decided that we needed some enhanced techniques. So we went to the Justice Department and the controversy has arisen over the opinions written by the Justice Department. The reason we went to the Justice Department wasn't because we felt we were going to take some kind of freehand assault on these people, that we were in the torture business. We weren't. ... if we had been about torture we wouldn't have wasted our time going to the Justice Department."

Perhaps the most remarkable moment of the interview, however, came when Cheney was asked if President Bush himself had signed off on the interrogation program. His response left the impression that Bush was brought into the loop only as a legal or political formality.

"I certainly have every reason to believe that he knew a great deal about the program," he said. "He basically authorized it. I mean, this was a presidential level decision. And the decision went to the president. He signed off on it."

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Comments

[osage]

CONVINCING THE DUMBED-DOWN THAT WATERBOARDING IS ILLEGAL IS LIKE TRYING TO TEACH A LATTER DAY REPUBLICAN ABOUT EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY OR ECOLOGY

WATERBOARDING IS ILLEGAL

http://lawreview.wustl.edu/slip-opinions/waterboarding-is-illegal/

1. Torture Act

2. War Crimes Act

3. Prohibition on Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment of Persons Under Custody or Control of the United States Government

4. Additional Prohibition on Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

"The United States has enacted statutes prohibiting torture and cruel or inhuman treatment. It is these statutes which make waterboarding illegal. The four principal statutes which Congress has adopted to implement the provisions of the foregoing treaties are the Torture Act, the War Crimes Act,and the laws entitled "Prohibition on Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment of Persons Under Custody or Control of the United States Government" and "Additional Prohibition on Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment." The first two statutes are criminal laws while the latter two statutes extend civil rights to any person in the custody of the United States anywhere in the world."

[osage]

BUSH’S “ENHANCED INTERROGATION” PROGRAM FAILED

Every time you hear a conservative repeat the canard that torture kept America safe, refer to this report as a handy rebuttal:

http://thinkprogress.org/why-enhanced-interrogation-failed/

TORTURE DOES NOT YIELD ACCURATE INTELLIGENCE

[newpantaloons]

'Dick'. How did his mother know?

[Velocitor]

Cheney's function is just to provide Left cover for Obama. If anybody on the Democrat "team" gets dissatisfied with Obama's leadership, Cheney steps in to keep things nice and polarized. Democrats and Republicans are not in competition- they are the two "brackets" which keep us moving along with international bankers' agenda to turn us into a welfare/police state. Democrats push the welfare state, Republicans push the police state, and they keep us bouncing along down the line to the final goal: a poverty-stricken toothless America as a client state of the bankers' world government (under the UN, IMF, World Bank, and WTO).
Wake up, America! Cheney and Obama are on the same team.

[Melizzy]

That is ridiculous.

[apduncan1]

Completely.

[Velocitor]

It's not really... they may well dislike each other, but they are working for the same bosses... the banks (particularly Rockefeller affiliates :Chase, Citi), also JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and the other "inner circle" of the Federal Reserve System.
The economic implosion began in October, and the Bush administration quickly responded with a huge giveaway of taxpayer money. ($750 billion, and they admitted they didn't have a reason for the number, just wanted to pick a big number)
Since then, we've had an election, inaugeration, a first 100 days of a new administration, and what do we have? An ongoing giveaway to banks (but not General Motors!) now up to $12 trillion.
Want to find the common thread? You should EASILY be able to verify the following:
Look at the link between Obama and Kissinger. Look at how many of Obama's staff worked with or for Kissinger.
Kissinger has been a Rockefeller employee since 1956.
Kissinger and the Rockefellers are huge supporters and participants in the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).
Dick Cheney is a long-time member and former Director of the CFR.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOAk-7F1EVU

If they are so ideologically opposite, why are they both so closely connected with this banker-run non-governmental private "think tank"?

[Venicedread]

I hear your concern, but can't find any correlation between the two.
I do believe that Obama's hands are tied to great extent on what he would like to see as opposed to what he can actually get done.
The system in place is a powerful one that will take a great deal of skill to change in any real way.
That being said, I real don't think Obama like Cheney one bit.
And their core beliefs are near polar opposites.
Whatever the case, the system won't be changed over night.

[Velocitor]

I'm not saying they like each other- they may well dislike each other, but they are working for the same bosses... the banks, particularly Rockefeller affiliates (Chase, Citi), JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and the other "inner circle" of the Federal Reserve System.
The economic implosion began in October, and the Bush administration quickly responded with a huge giveaway of taxpayer money. ($750 billion, and they admitted they didn't have a reason for the number, just wanted to pick a big number)
Since then, we've had an election, inaugeration, a first 100 days of a new administration, and what do we have? An ongoing giveaway to banks (but not General Motors!) now up to $12 trillion.
Want to find the common thread? You should EASILY be able to verify the following:
Look at the link between Obama and Kissinger. Look at how many of Obama's staff worked with or for Kissinger.
Kissinger has been a Rockefeller employee since 1956.
Kissinger and the Rockefellers are huge supporters and participants in the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).
Dick Cheney is a long-time member and former Director of the CFR.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOAk-7F1EVU

If they are so ideologically opposite, why are they both so closely connected with this banker-run non-governmental private "think tank"?

[InfinteShibumi]

From zero to 180. You might find a right angle in there somewhere...

[TimtheEnchanted]

"I certainly have every reason to believe that he knew a great deal about the program," he said. "He basically authorized it. I mean, this was a presidential level decision. And the decision went to the president. He signed off on it."

COWARD! "It wasn't my fault". Turn his sorry @ss over to some country who will waterboard him without mercy!

[Nashville fan]

How does the President of the United States "basically aprove" something?

How can there be a gray area?

So, basically Dick Cheney is confirming that he has been President for the past 8 years.

[disgustedbyitall]

...and who were the fools again who were upset that Wanda Sykes wished Cheney's fellow torturer Rush Limbaugh would die?

Anyone who gives her the least bit of grief on her comments is a just a partisan fool.

[SouthernBlueBelle]

She didn't say she wanted him to die, per se. She just wished his kidneys would fail. He could be on dialysis and strapped in a wheel chair.

And I don't believe for one minute that he needed that wheel chair on inauguration day. He just wasn't going to stand up for this new president.

[IntellectuallyHonest]

I wonder how Colin feels after kow-towing to the Cheney in 2003 and virtually guaranteeing an invasion of Iraq by an American army with his UN performance? He may never rehabilitate himself, although he is trying repeatedly in the media

[VictoriaP]

he is clearly ashamed of having been a part of the biggest war crime in our nation's history. career military men take their service very seriously and he will likely live the rest of his life in extreme regret and self inflicted emotional pain.

[InfinteShibumi]

This is how he feels about http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2004/sep/12/Iraqandthemedia.politicsphilosophyandsocietyiety
Interesting this article got no play Stateside. I imagine this is why Europeans (including Donatella Versace elsewhere on HuffPo today) still admire Powell.

[VictoriaP]

GREAT ARTICLE, THANK YOU! I am going to repost the link.

[stillfresh]

When will this miscreant become a tree falling in the forest that no one can hear?

[arspar183]

3 questions i'd love some comentrator to have the hut zpah to ask cheney

1. would you be in favor of having the articles of prisoner interro gations of the gen eva conve ntion replaced with the bush enhanced interro gation techniques if they are so effective?
2. would you be ok with american servicemen being subjected to these interro gation techniq ues if captured by the enemy?
3.if they were so effective why didn't it produce intel on the spain bom bings, or the london bom bings or any other post 9-11 bo mbings?

[alenaspoppa]

I think an even better question would be "Why are you still here?"

[WasteNJ]

SO Cheney would "prefer Limbaugh to Powell" as far as Republicans go; try hard not to read that subtext.

Cheney resented Powell in the cabinet and steamrolled over him at every opportunity. Powell was the fly in their ointment, and although at the time nobody was mistaking Powell for a Democrat, apparently things have changed, the goalposts have moved, and now Powell is almost persona non-grata in the GOP.

Colin, I think you should switch too. Maybe just go Independent. The GOP doesn't consider you useful anymore, and you should keep better company.

[TakeNoNeoConPrisoners]

I would now hope that Collin Powell will spill all the beans about Bush and Cheney. About the lies, the fear mongering, the war profiteering, the torture, the fabrication of reasons to go to war in Iraq and all of the other insider facts about how these two excuses for human beings did what they did. Come on Collin. Spill it all. Consider it the least you can do now for previously being a traitor to the values and laws of the US Constitution. It will certainly credit you as someone with some redeeming value afterall even though it is too late to prevent what happened from happening.

[arspar183]

3 questions i'd love some comentrator to have the hutzpah to ask cheney

1. would you be in favor of having the articles of prisoner interrogations of the geneva convention replaced with the bush enhanced interrogation techniques if they are so effective?
2. would you be ok with american servicemen being subjected to these interrogation techniques if captured by the enemy?
3.if they were so effective why didn't it produce intel on the spain bombings, or the london bombings or any other post 9-11 bombings?

[VictoriaP]

Dick actually has the nerve to remind us that the country was also subject to the anthrax attack on HIS watch.

[leonel]

A HIGH LEVEL POLITICAL ANTI-SOCIAL PERSONALITY IS RARE IN A DEMOCRATIC COUNTRY.

This will be an interesting challenge and a spectacle to watch. The Democratic Party has to be careful because the whole world is watching and they blame the Bush Administration for many problems such as the Iraq War and the failure to regulate banks and help cause the world economic crisis. Everybody knows the Republican Party is not doing "damage control" and so going down the road of perdition. Unpredictable days ahead. A lot more analysis ahead; the book ANGLER which details much of the misbehavior by Cheney and how he manipulated Bush, needs to be summarized on the internet, maybe even serialized. Some of us will do on our own if necessary.

[WasteNJ]

Thanks for the tip.

[CaptainStormfield]

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/03/31/hersh-cheney-behind/
Seymour Hersh on Dick Cheney.
Unfortunately he is still the most dangerous man in America.