The AP headline from Tuesday reads, "Cheney: US gained information from interrogations."
Cheney said Monday that what hasn't been revealed publicly is what the U.S. gained as a result of these actions.Why would Cheney try to justify war crimes by claiming that committing them created desirable "consequences?" If I understand his reasoning, he doesn't care whether waterboarding or other means constitute torture because the ends justify the means. It's as simple as that. (Oh, and why would Cheney claim that he requested declassification of the memos if he did not? Because Dick Cheney is a pathological liar.)
"I know specifically of reports that I read, that I saw, that lay out what we learned through the interrogation process and what the consequences were for the country," Cheney said.
Cheney said he has formally asked the CIA to declassify the memos.
However, a senior intelligence official said Tuesday the CIA has received no such requests from the former vice president. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose it publicly.
It doesn't take a legal scholar to explain the dangers of heading down this slippery slope. Still, Constitutional Law Professor Jonathan Turley did so smartly back in December on Countdown with Keith Olbermann:
Whether Dick Cheney thinks torture works or not is irrelevant. Torture is a war crime. The law is not in question. The question is whether we will continue to stand silently and watch men break our laws without question, without prosecution.
