The long-awaited Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture techniques released on Tuesday drew critical comments from former Vice President Dick Cheney during a telephone interview with The New York Times on Monday.
The interrogation techniques, which involved waterboarding, sleep deprivation, exposure to extreme temperatures, and assault, among others, were "absolutely, totally justified," according to Cheney, who, along with former President George W. Bush, oversaw the program in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
"What I keep hearing out there is they portray this as a rogue operation and the agency was way out of bounds and then they lied about it," Cheney said in a telephone interview. "I think that's all a bunch of hooey. The program was authorized. The agency did not want to proceed without authorization, and it was also reviewed legally by the Justice Department before they undertook the program."
Reports that the CIA misled the White House "is just a crock," he added. "They deserve a lot of praise. As far as I'm concerned, they ought to be decorated, not criticized."
Critics of the program have forgotten its purpose, according to Cheney. "When we had that program in place, we kept the country safe from any more mass casualty attacks, which was our objective," he told The Times.
It was "the right thing to do, and if I had to do it over again, I would do it."
Cheney has remained a vocal proponent of the techniques and has insisted that waterboarding Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11, produced "the intelligence that allowed us to get Osama bin Laden," reported Politico.
But according to CIA evaluations revealed in the newly released report, waterboarding Mohammed at least 183 times produced significant fabricated information, did not work "in gaining [his] compliance," and proved "ineffective."
"The potential for physical harm is far greater with the waterboard than with the other techniques, bringing into question the issue of risk vs. gain," the CIA said.
The CIA concluded, "We seem to have lost ground," with KSM since progress made at DETENTION SITE COBALT, and as a result, the CIA should 'consider the possibility' that the introduction of the waterboard interrogation technique 'may poison the well.'"
Mohammed was also subjected to repeated facial and abdominal slaps, facial grabs, stress positions, standing sleep deprivation, nudity, water dousing, and repeated and non-medically necessary rectal rehydration. His children were also threated, according to the report.
