Former Vice President Dick Cheney says he supports reinstating enhanced interrogation techniques that were used in the wake of the September 11th attacks.
Cheney told Fox Business, ‘If it were my call I would not discontinue those programs. I’d have them active and ready to go, and I’d go back and study them and learn.’
He played a key role in instituting the enhanced interrogation program during the Bush Administration, and has previously said he does not consider the techniques that were used used on 9/11 architect, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, as torture, because they have been applied to U.S. training officers.
‘There are a lot of Monday morning quarterbacks in the terrorism business,’ Cheney added.
He said the tactics that were previously employed on detainees in the years following September 11th, helped produce the intelligence needed to find the Osama Bin Laden.
Vice President Dick Cheney says he supports bringing back enhanced interrogation techniques that were used in the wake of the Sept. 11th attacks
Gina Haspel pictured testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee on her nomination to be the next CIA director says she would not restart a ‘detention and interrogation program’
Cheney also said that despite the 2015 congress vote to ban the use of torture, thus preventing the government from using interrogation techniques like waterboarding, that he believes they are the most effective means of gathering intelligence.
‘You tell me that the only method we have is please, please, pretty please, tell us what you know? Well I don’t buy that,’ Cheney said.
The debate over the use of interrogation techniques such as waterboarding and sleep deprivation are at the forefront as President Trump nominated Gina Haspel to replace CIA Director Mike Pompeo.
Haspel was involved in running a 2002 black site prison in Thailand where an Al Qaeda militant was tortured.
Haspel, currently the CIA’s acting director, told her Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday, she would not carry out any order from Trump she found morally objectionable, though she did not say she would refuse an order to use waterboarding, a form of simulated torture, to get answers from a terrorism suspect.
‘My moral compass is strong. I would not allow CIA to undertake activity that I thought was immoral, even if was technically legal. I would absolutely not permit it,’ Haspel told the Senate Intelligence Committee.
‘Having served in that tumultuous time, I can offer you my personal commitment, clearly and without reservation, that under my leadership, on my watch, CIA will not restart such a detention and interrogation program,’ Haspel testified.
Haspel said U.S. law now clearly prohibits such interrogation methods, and ‘I fully support the detainee treatment required by law.’
The hearing was dominated by questions about Haspel’s role at the CIA in the use of harsh interrogation methods during former President George W. Bush’s administration, as well as the destruction of videotapes documenting the tactics.
She has also emphatically stated: ‘I don’t believe that torture works.’
Senator John McCain released a public statement Wednesday on his official website where he urged the Senate to reject Haspel for the role, based on her role in the enhanced interrogation program during the Bush Administration.
The senator said in part: ‘Like many Americans, I understand the urgency that drove the decision to resort to so-called enhanced interrogation methods after our country was attacked. I know that those who used enhanced interrogation methods and those who approved them wanted to protect Americans from harm.
‘I appreciate their dilemma and the strain of their duty. But as I have argued many times, the methods we employ to keep our nation safe must be as right and just as the values we aspire to live up to and promote in the world.’
US Army military policemen pat down suspected insurgents while processing new detainees at the Abu Ghraib Prison October 27, 2005 in Baghdad, Iraq
McCain went on to say: ‘I believe Gina Haspel is a patriot who loves our country and has devoted her professional life to its service and defense. However, Ms. Haspel’s role in overseeing the use of torture by Americans is disturbing.
‘Her refusal to acknowledge torture’s immorality is disqualifying. I believe the Senate should exercise its duty of advice and consent and reject this nomination.’
President Trump, however, praised Haspel’s performance and released a contrasting statement to social media hours after McCain.
Trump wrote: ‘Gina Haspel did a spectacular job today. There is nobody even close to run the CIA!’