Former Vice President Dick Cheney said he favors keeping enhanced interrogation techniques around as an option, a day after President Trump’s nominee to lead the CIA said she would not use those methods, which many describe as torture.
“If it were my call, I would not discontinue those programs. I’d have them active and ready to go,” Cheney told Fox Business in an interview that aired Thursday morning. “And I’d go back and study them and learn.”
Cheney is a vocal supporter of former President Bush’s enhanced interrogation policy, which was used on suspected terrorists after the 9/11 terrorist attack, and Cheney said helped the U.S. obtain the intelligence it needed to find Osama bin Laden.
Trump’s CIA pick, Gina Haspel, testified Wednesday that she would not bring back any type of enhanced interrogation and detention programs if she were to be confirmed as the first female CIA director.
Cheney said he does not feel the enhanced interrogation can be classified as torture because those same techniques were used on U.S. training officers.
Congress voted to ban the use of torture during interrogations in 2015, preventing the government from using techniques like waterboarding.
