Former Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday dismissed a Senate report on harsh interrogation practices used by the Central Intelligence Agency, saying officials “very carefully” avoided going past the legal threshold for torture.
“Torture is what the al Qaeda terrorists did to 3,000 Americans on 9/11,” Cheney said on NBC’s “Meet The Press.” “There is no comparison between that and what we did with respect to enhanced interrogation.”
The CIA’s interrogation techniques following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have come under fire following a Senate report detailing how agency operatives used waterboarding and rectal feeding to try to obtain information from suspects.
“Waterboarding, the way we did it, was not torture,” the former vice president claimed.
As for the practice of “rectal rehydration,” in which food was pureed and given anally to prisoners, Cheney replied, “What was done here was not one of the techniques approved.”
But Cheney added that such a technique was done for “medical reasons.”
Cheney also hit back at claims that both he and President George W. Bush were kept in the dark about the CIA program, saying the White House clearly outlined acceptable practices.
“This man knew what we were doing,” Cheney said of Bush. “He authorized it. He approved it.”
