Former Vice President Dick Cheney, a strong proponent of the enhanced interrogation program run by the CIA post-9/11, called the report released this week by Senate Democrats on the program a “terrible piece of work” and “deeply flawed.”
Mr. Cheney said that despite the report saying the CIA misled Congress, the White House and others on the extent and effectiveness of the program, former President George W. Bush “was, in fact, an integral part of the program. He had to approve it before we went forward with it.”
The report, believed to be the most comprehensive public accounting to date of the agency’s post-9/11 handling of terror suspects, also said the techniques were not effective in extracting information from suspected terrorists. Critics have said the release will only embolden U.S. enemies around the globe, while advocates of its release say it’s important to have a full accounting to ensure that practices such as waterboarding, officially banned by President Obama, don’t happen again.
On 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Mr. Cheney said they did what they needed to do to extract information from him.
“He [was] in our possession, we know he’s the architect, and what are we supposed to do? Kiss him on both cheeks and say ’Please, please, tell us what you know?’ Of course not,” he told Fox News’ Bret Baier. “We did exactly what needed to be done in order to catch those who were guilty on 9/11 and to prevent a further attack, and we were successful on both parts.”
“This report says it was not successful,” Mr. Baier said.
SEE ALSO: Dick Cheney on CIA report: It’s ‘all a bunch of hooey’
“The report is full of crap,” Cheney replied.
Mr. Cheney acknowledged that he hadn’t read the entire 6,000-page report, but that he’d read summaries of it; an approximately 500-page executive summary was released by Senate Democrats earlier this week.
“I think that what needed to be done was done, I think we were perfectly justified in doing it, and I’d do it again in a minute,” he said.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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