Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday it’s an “outrage” the Obama administration continues to investigate CIA agents who interrogated terror suspects, claiming they did nothing wrong and expressing concern about the precedent it sets.
Cheney weighed in on the probe after several Republicans and other ex-officials have renewed their call for the Justice Department to drop the investigation — launched nearly two years ago by Attorney General Eric Holder — in light of the killing of Usama bin Laden.
Though it’s unclear what role so-called enhanced interrogation played in finding bin Laden, Cheney told “Fox News Sunday” the techniques probably “contributed” and suggested the circumstances make the Justice probe all the more unsettling.
“It’s unfortunate,” Cheney said. “These men deserve to be decorated. They don’t deserve to be prosecuted.”
Cheney noted there was a “complete investigation” during the Bush administration that concluded the agents had not violated the law. He said the decision by Holder to reopen that case and hand it over to a special prosecutor sets a “terrible precedent.”
“These are government employees. They did nothing wrong, as best as any of us knows,” Cheney told “Fox News Sunday.” “It is an outrage that we would go after the people who deserve the credit for keeping us safe for seven and a half years.”
Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld also said Sunday that the Obama administration should set the CIA probe “aside” and move on, calling it a “most unfortunate thing.”
“These people were operating at the direction of the president. They were doing things that had been approved by the Department of Justice,” Rumsfeld said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “And it sends a chill throughout the government.”
The investigation has been kept under wraps since Holder first announced it, and it’s unclear how far along it’s come. The sister of a Sept. 11 victim said Thursday that President Obama turned down her request to advise Holder to drop the probe.
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6 Responses
so is it fine for foreign governments to allow common citizens the right impose limitless torture using the most advanced technologies on americans and europeans every time they feel it “may save lives” or is justified, or is otherwise beneficial to their nationalist objectives? i guess this is concrete affirmation.
i don’t think anyone has a right to comment on this issue at all without thorough knowledge of the population genetics aspect of this situation.
Dick Chaney is a war criminal who should be in jail. While in office he was the greatest threat to American democracy since the Watergate crises.
This is typical of Obama- grab for himself, punish everybody else. In this case he couldn’t resist basking in the glory of catching Osama while punishing the very people who got him there. The news media is ignoring a blatant contradiction and demonstration of hypocrisy that could overturn his chances of reelection. No one likes a hypocrite.
The CIA should be investigating all of obama’s czars and friends like bill ayers, george soros, van jones and see who they are tied to.
What a shame this article reports Cheny lying even now. Cheney says in the article that the torture techiques practiced in the first half of the 2000s were probably partially responsible for OBL’s killing. The truth is that Cheyny has not a clue as to whether this is true and hasnt offered u a clue as to whether this is ture. All that has been offered, actually, by any media, is that one tortured person gave the same nickname that other
NONtortured detainees gave, and that another tortured detainee gave flase information about the detainee. but Cheyney still lies with impunity.
According to ABC News former and current CIA officials have come forward to reveal details of interrogation techniques authorized in the CIA prior to 2006. These include:
[1] Waterboarding
[2] Hypothermia: The prisoner is left to stand naked in a cell kept near 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius), while being regularly doused with cold water in order to increase the rate at which heat is lost from the body. (A water temperature of 10 °C (50 °F) often leads to death in one hour.
[3] Stress positions: Prisoners are forced to stand, handcuffed and with their feet shackled to an eye bolt in the floor, for more than 40 hours, causing the prisoners weight to be placed on just one or two muscles. This creates an intense amount of pressure on the legs, leading first to pain and then muscle failure.
[4] Abdomen strikes: A hard, open-handed slap is dealt to the prisoner’s abdomen. Doctors consulted over the matter advised against using a punch, which could cause lasting internal damage.
[5] Slapping: An open-handed slap is delivered to the prisoner’s face, aimed at causing pain and triggering fear.
[6] Shaking: The interrogator forcefully grabs the front of the prisoner’s shirt and shakes them.
Bush Admininstration maintains that after stopping the torture in 2006 and resuming Revised enhanced interrogation in 2007 they stuck with practices that would abide by international rules found in the Geneva convention Treaties.
Is this site full of nothing but liberal haters of everything decent?
Cheney a “war criminal”?
When was the last time that Lawyers working for the CIA on the legality of such things were questioned for THEIR personal opinions on what THEY believed?
This has NEVER happened before and is nothing but a witch hunt by those who want to make sure the terrorists win and America gets destroyed.