Dismissing Senate Report, Cheney Defends C.I.A. Interrogations

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/09/world/dismissing-senate-report-cheney-defends-cia-interrogations.html

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Mr. Cheney, who was a vocal champion of those techniques after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and has never accepted the widespread description of them as torture, said he had not read the report that the Intelligence Committee is expected to release on Tuesday. But from news reports about it, he said he had heard nothing to change his mind about the wisdom and effectiveness of the program.

“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,” he 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.”

Mr. Cheney said he never thought the C.I.A. was withholding information from him or the White House about the nature of the program, nor did he think the agency exaggerated the value of the intelligence gained from waterboarding and other techniques. The reported conclusion by the Senate Intelligence Committee that the C.I.A. misled the White House, he added, “is just a crock.”

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