Jeff Hughes' Daily Muck picked up on something Dick Cheney, the hero of the battle of the Armstrong Ranch, said during an interview with a tame reporter.
In the interview on Tuesday, Scott Hennen of WDAY Radio in Fargo, N.D., told Cheney that listeners had asked him to "let the vice president know that if it takes dunking a terrorist in water, we're all for it, if it saves American lives."Get that? A little dunk in the water is OK, but we don't torture."Again, this debate seems a little silly given the threat we face, would you agree?" Hennen said.
"I do agree," Cheney replied, according to a transcript of the interview released Wednesday. "And I think the terrorist threat, for example, with respect to our ability to interrogate high-value detainees like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, that's been a very important tool that we've had to be able to secure the nation."
Cheney added that Mohammed had provided "enormously valuable information about how many (al-Qaida members) 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."
"Would you agree that a dunk in water is a no-brainer if it can save lives?" asked Hennen.
"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," Cheney replied. "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."
So, either Cheney figures torture is just fine, or... he doesn't consider waterboarding torture; simply a robust interrogation technique.
Cheney was being interviewed in his office for Radio Day at the White House. Let's face it, if you're going to violate the US Constitution, you might as well do it from its source of refuge.
Lindsay points out that Cheney's comments are being played for a particular audience.
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