Cheney: 33 detainees suffered 'enhanced interrogation'

[kpete]

Source: Raw Story

Cheney: 33 detainees suffered 'enhanced interrogation'
Nick Juliano
Published: Monday December 22, 2008

Continuing what some might call his his Torture Defense Tour '08, Dick Cheney on Monday revealed for the first time the number of US captives who were subjected to so-called "enhanced interrogation," and he insisted the US had a moral imperative to engage in such techniques.

The outgoing vice president said CIA interrogators subjected 33 detainees to the harsh techniques, which critics say constitute torture, and he vigorously defended the practice. After a weekend interview with Fox News Sunday, Cheney spoke to the conservative Washington Times on Monday.

"I think there were a total of about 33 who were subjected to enhanced interrogation; only three of those who were subjected to waterboarding," Cheney told the paper, according to a transcript released by the Vice President's office Monday. "Was it torture? I don't believe it was torture. We spent a great deal of time and effort getting legal advice, legal opinion out of the Office of Legal Counsel, which is where you go for those kinds of opinions, from the Department of Justice as to where the red lines were out there in terms of this you can do, this you can't do. The CIA handled itself, I think, very appropriately."

Techniques beyond waterboarding include use of stress positions, forced nudity, sleep deprivation and exploitation of fears, for example by threatening detainees with vicious dogs.

Read more: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Cheney_33_detainees_suffered_enhanced_interrogation_1222.html

[KamaAina]

1. "Enhanced interrogation"?!

"enhanced interrogation" is to torture as "food insecurity" is to hunger! :grr:

[awoke_in_2003]

8. Well described in "1984:...

use of language to control thoughts. That why we have gems like this, WMD, IED, etc.

[sinkingfeeling]

2. OK, so that's 30 charges of inhumane treatment of prisoners and 3 war crime charges!

[dipsydoodle]

3. aka torture

x(

[The Stranger]

4. Amazing that this sub-human criminal tours while the poor stupid Democrats lynch Blogojevich.

It is a mindfuck.

[Politicalboi]

5. Just 3 water boarded?

I don't believe anything this Monster says. I bet they were all water boarded. Cheney thinks nobody will believe a terrorist. I hope they end up owning his getaway Island and they water board him there to get the answers they want to hear.

[awoke_in_2003]

9. If they admit to 3...

then it is probably 30k

[Twinguard]

20. They admit to 3

because there is only "proof" that 3 were tortured. If it's not videotaped, it didn't happen.

[specimenfred1984]

6. It's up to 33 now in the war criminal's mind

It'll be in the 1000s a few weeks from now as Hitler-Jr's confidence grows that he won't be charged with war crimes.

[sakabatou]

7. Impeach! Impeach! Impeach!

[Solly Mack]

10. "critics" snort...critics claim it's torture...the narrative being

people who don't like what we did call it torture...people that don't like us call it torture

so they have a motive for calling it torture...and the pretense is that it is debatable..or a matter of opinion...if it is torture or not...and "critics" are only calling it torture because they don't like us or the "technique"...said technique being a torture technique.


It's a bullshit narrative

Then we have the "I don't believe it was torture" ...They told me I could do it and as far as I know it isn't torture...so don't blame me because they said it was legal

More bullshit


and then we have.. the moral imperative to torture people

Moral? snort

[mimitabby]

11. i'd like to "enhanced interrogate " HIM

[hamsterjill]

26. Oh, me, too!!!

Except that I am not expert in that field, so I'd like to defer to someone who is - and could do it right for the most result!

Cheney is a disgrace to this country.

[shanti]

12. ok...

is anyone puzzled about why this is all coming out NOW? he's not doing this without a reason.

[IndianaGreen]

13. Which Office of Legal Counsel did Cheney consult, the Gestapo's?

This man should be at The Hague.

The reason Cheney is spilling the beans is because he knows Obama won't prosecute him, and won't recognize an arrest warrant from the International Crimes Court at The Hague. The deal has been struck!

[Gregorian]

14. Cheney on the defensive? Now that's a switch.

Hey, even Darth Vader had some goodness in his heart.

[LaurenG]

15. I do not believe for a second the number is that low

and why the "True Crime" confessions all of the sudden?

[byronius]

16. Cheney gets his own level in hell.

[Doremus]

17. Pelosi and other Dems can't impeach because they are complicit. n/t

[Gregorian]

18. Even if we were in an actual war, these are still crimes.

And we weren't. And Al Qaeda wasn't there. And why were you torturing?

Go directly to jail. Do not collect $200 billion.

[Cronopio]

19. If only it were Cheney on the receiving end of "enhanced interrogation".

He's the one with the big secrets after all.

[pmorlan1]

21. Cheney the liar

Cheney is a notorious liar so I'm sure that Cheney is low balling the number of prisoners subjected to torture.

[priller]

25. Exactly right.

Never forget that everything Cheney says is a lie. I agree that he's probably *way* low-balling these numbers to make himself look more reasonable. I think the photos from Abu Ghraib alone show more abuse than that. Besides, I think I've read where something like 170 people have died in US custody in Iraq and Afghanistan and Gitmo. You have to assume that most of these were not from "heart attacks" or whatever excuse they give.

[WhiteTara]

22. and they just tortured the rest. n/t

[Harry Monroe]

23. Can we make him #34??

He is the scum of the earth.

[LynnTheDem]

24. Cheney: 33 detainees suffered TORTURE.

It is TORTURE, dick.

That's legal FACT.

[truthisfreedom]

27. Yo chenster... howzabout a little enhanced impeachment?

I'd say you've been an enhanced vice president, and you and your enhanced president have used enhanced banking and enhanced wars to run our country into the enhanced ditch.

Go enhance yourself, you creep.