Feb 14, 2010 9:56am
Dick Cheney: Waterboarding Should Have Been Option with Underwear Bomber
EmailWhen asked by ABC’s Jonathan Karl whether the U.S. government should have had the option to use “enhanced interrogation techniques,” including waterboarding with Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab, former Vice President Dick Cheney said, “I think you ought to have all of those capabilities on the table.”
“Now, President Obama has taken them off the table. He announced when he came in last year that they would never use anything other than the U.S. Army Manual which doesn’t include those techniques. I think that’s a mistake,” Cheney said in an exclusive interview on “This Week.”
Watch the exchange HERE:
Sen. DeMint: GOP Race Could Go Until Convention 
Obama Avoids Questions on Contraception Rule
Here he is ….have at it…
Posted by: LongT | February 14, 2010, 10:39 am 10:39 am
Mr. Cheney, go crawl back into that hole you slithered out of, nobody is listening to you any more.
Posted by: CC | February 14, 2010, 10:40 am 10:40 am
WAY TO GO CHENEY
Posted by: Jayne | February 14, 2010, 10:41 am 10:41 am
During my lifetime, Cheney has been the most frightening political figure when it comes to individual human rights and civil rights. During Bush’s two terms, my greatest concern for this country was that if something were to happen to Bush (and he was my least favorite president), what would happen to the rights of the people with Cheney in charge. Very scary!
Posted by: jmb | February 14, 2010, 10:44 am 10:44 am
CC…please. Speak for yourself. Pretty arrogant of you to assume you speak for us all when you say, “nobody is listening to you.” Sorry, but just because YOU don’t like the message doesn’t mean the no one likes it.
Posted by: ncpilot09 | February 14, 2010, 10:48 am 10:48 am
And jmb…if you were afraid of Cheney, you must be absolutely terrified of that clown we have for a VP now. That is, if you are intellectually honest.
Posted by: ncpilot09 | February 14, 2010, 10:50 am 10:50 am
Executive privilege! Oh sorry that was Bush/Rove. Cheney is an idiot except that he is one heck of a marksman. Lets just let Cheney take the underwear bomber hunting and they can take Pelosi and Palin too. Hey Palin look. Its a moose dressed up like Cheney.
Posted by: AW | February 14, 2010, 10:51 am 10:51 am
Let’s put this guy on the witness stand.
Posted by: Doug | February 14, 2010, 10:54 am 10:54 am
I love Cheney. He can speak for me anytime. And, yes, I do miss W. These lame crackpots in the white house now are goin to get us all killed!!!
Posted by: melton | February 14, 2010, 10:55 am 10:55 am
Cheney is disgusting! Why do you feature him? We turned off the TV. For 8 years Cheney had his chance! Let him shut up as his boss President George W. Bush honorably has! We do not need any more of his self-defenses. His defense of torture is so sad. Americans are better than that! Cheney is done! He has had his time! Americans voted to go a different route.
Posted by: Bruce & Jan | February 14, 2010, 10:55 am 10:55 am
Bush & Cheney screwed up Afghanistan – by diverting all our resources into the Iraq war for non-existent WMDs (Dishonest or Incompetent – you decide). They used Waterboarding which has been shown to not produce reliable or useful information.
Now Cheney wants to whine and moan about how Obama is going about cleaning up the Bush/Cheney disaster – what a pathetic little man.
We have gotten and are getting useful information out of the underwear bomber, but results don’t matter to Dickie boy, which is obvious by the lack of results from the Bush/Cheney administration.
Posted by: Rence | February 14, 2010, 10:58 am 10:58 am
Can’t anyone look at the harm these tactics have caused to our military? Should any of our troops be captured they are subject to the same standard of treatment we have established. How can we expect others to treat our troops by the Geneva Conventions when we decide to ignore them?
Posted by: azfire | February 14, 2010, 10:58 am 10:58 am
The guy was arrested in the United States. So who gets to decide who gets waterboarded? Muslims only? Timothy McVeigh types? Why not use it on Terry Nichols? After all he was in the Philippines on that same small island at the same time as with Ramzi Yousef. Think of all the police resources we could have saved if we’d just waterboarded JonBenet Ramsey’s parents or Elizabeth Smart’s parents or Richard Jewell!
Posted by: Skeptic | February 14, 2010, 10:58 am 10:58 am
In actuality and as much as I think Cheney is a crook that helped Bush be talked into going in to Iraq for false reasons. Cheney had/has a huge stock in a tank part mfg company. I guess he would want war. However when we catch someone that isn’t suspected but caught in the act I too say torture him and water boarding is too nice. After getting Intel needed take him out back and start with a M80 down his underwear and after that shoot him.
Posted by: AW | February 14, 2010, 10:58 am 10:58 am
Cheney just proves that the terrorists have won. They’ve brought us down to their level.
Posted by: Hokuto | February 14, 2010, 10:59 am 10:59 am
He ia such a smug, negative, Bas______. His hatred of President Obama (his relative), is deplorable. Sad to say, he still continues to see absolutely nothing wrong with waterboarding. Truly, he is a piece of work…work we wish would disappear.
Posted by: nojo3 | February 14, 2010, 10:59 am 10:59 am
Mr. Cheney, go crawl back nobody is listening to you any more >>>> Gee I wonder when the Clintons who BROKE the talk about the new president rule will do the same? IN fact I think Cheney is RIGHT its funny how smug and biased most people are. How they refuse to look at the facts. How they reduce to refute whats said and instead talk whine like CHILDREN. Fact Obama became president. Fact WE HAVE BEEN ATTACKED 4 times since then. GEE playing NICE has had NO IMPACT on people wanting to kill all of us in the USA. WHERE is that in this article? It should be front and center that the Presidential politics of play nice has FAILED and should be stacked up on top of all the other failures. What a sad pathetic joke this Presidential administration is.
Posted by: ChicagoBob | February 14, 2010, 11:06 am 11:06 am
I’m confounded as to why ABC and other news organizations continue to give Cheney the pulpit…when there are so many other people to interview who’s perspectives matter because they are in positions to actually impact policy. Are these news “producers” so unimaginative that must constantly move backward instead of forward. Hello? Cheney is GONE. Please don’t let me believe this is really about ratings.
Posted by: Jay | February 14, 2010, 11:06 am 11:06 am
In the discussion following the Cheney interview, reporters are politicizing national security once again.
Posted by: SecondEdition2 | February 14, 2010, 11:08 am 11:08 am
When Cheney became eligible for the draft, during the Vietnam War, he applied for and received five draft deferments. In 1989, when asked about his deferments, Cheney reportedly said, “I had other priorities in the ’60s than military service.”
Cheney is the biggest coward this country has ever seen…..and still he was our VP for eight years. My God, no wonder this country got so screwed up!!
Posted by: Jerry | February 14, 2010, 11:08 am 11:08 am
This Anti-American Pig is Simply Trying to Re-Write History….It’s a Done Deal. The War in Iraq was NOT worth Nothing Cheney…with the loss of thousands of our soldiers, and the Waste of Trillions of our Dollars, does Not justify Going into War with a Country that WAS NOT a THREAT to US. Iraq was Not the WAR on Terror..fool. It was an Excuse and Diversion from the many problems we had in the U.S. Crawl back in your Hole…..we are Americans, and we Don’t think NO TERRORIST OR ANY OTHER HUMAN BEING IS SUPERIOR TO US, NOR OR THEY “SUPERMEN”…..HiCheney!, you don’t Scare Me with your Stupidity.
Posted by: sara | February 14, 2010, 11:11 am 11:11 am
Cheney is just trying to rewrite history folks. He doesn’t want to go down in history as part of the worst administration ever !!! He thinks waterboarding is not torture … what a joke … If you just search its history you will quickly learn that this country actually executed P.O.W.’s for doing it to our troops during war. The height of hipocracy knows no bounds.
Posted by: Lou-NH | February 14, 2010, 11:11 am 11:11 am
This Crazy Man Is Delusional! He Really Believes his own lies! Isn’t there a Medical Term for This Condition? Please Get Him The proper Meds!
Posted by: TRUTH | February 14, 2010, 11:12 am 11:12 am
ncpilot09: Speaking of political creeps..
Posted by: Sentinel1946 | February 14, 2010, 11:12 am 11:12 am
Wake up people! We need people like Cheney in office to keep us safe. These terrorist need to know if they hurt us we are NOT going to play fair and they are NOT going to like it!
It takes FEAR to keep people in line. It works with your children and their father, it works with religion and it’s followers. It is a basic control tool used in many ways with the human race.
THINK about it! We will now be viewed as weak and vulnerable and the terrorist will take advantage of these Obama years to go to work on us. Biden, nice guy, but lets face it, he is a clown. Obama, nice guy, but he is not a COMMANDER IN CHIEF! He doesn’t have the guts it takes to make the hard decisions
about torture and treatment of these terrorist.
These liberals that want us all to be CIVIL to these terrorist would sing another tune if it was a son or daughter of theirs whose life was in jeopardy.
I bet they would want us to cut off their heads to return their child safely. You don’t understand the mindset of these people. They do not think in the western ways, you need to understand that!
Posted by: JW | February 14, 2010, 11:14 am 11:14 am
Draft Dodger!!!!!
Posted by: sara | February 14, 2010, 11:14 am 11:14 am
Does it still work for you, ABC, to have the young, fresh-faced chirpy man speaking for the Democrats and the uptight, gruff, not so attractive George Will speaking for the Republicans? ;-) That’s a game you’ve played for a long, long time. Has it really helped or made any differece at all? People do now recognized even the supposedly “subtle” forms of political bias. Don’t under estimate us, please!
Posted by: SecondEdition2 | February 14, 2010, 11:15 am 11:15 am
Why are you giving so much space for this guy to continue venting his psychotic mind? We had enough of him. He has no shame in keeping his rhetoric bs.
Posted by: MARCIO MELO | February 14, 2010, 11:15 am 11:15 am
Yea melton——-Six years of a Rep led Congress under Bush. Replaced by Dems because no one was happy with the Republicans and now the answer is to put back in what didn’t work in the first place. America is so smart. Just going to be a bunch of idiots voting down partisan lines with little research or regard to who is acually best for the job. Both parties have ruined this country including the Rep party. Back and forth, back and forth, Dem to Rep and back again and then back again. When will voters learn.
Posted by: AW | February 14, 2010, 11:16 am 11:16 am
One must be quite blind not to understand that the “good” thing about Iraq for Obama’s presidency was to tackle the inherited war/occupation by initiating the surge of troops, then refocusing on Afghanistan, where the war should have been all along. The GOOD thing about it for Obama’s administratio is getting the heck out of Iraq. That process is progressing. The Bush administration was absolutely WRONG to attack Iraq in the first place.
Posted by: m. driscoll | February 14, 2010, 11:17 am 11:17 am
Rence,
You speak of “the harm these tactics have caused to our military” and how we can’t expect other armies to follow the “Geneva Convention” when our soldiers are captured.
Do you realize our enemy cuts off the heads of our captured soldiers, kills women and children at will and wears no uniform????
What wars have you been following the last 5 years??
Posted by: Sean | February 14, 2010, 11:17 am 11:17 am
This Idiot is a “babbling Fool”, confused and Anti-America….ABC, you SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOUR SUBJUECT TO PARADE IN OUR HOMES AFTER KNOWING WHAT THIS DISPICABLE PERSON HAS DONE TO OUR COUNTRY.
Posted by: sara | February 14, 2010, 11:19 am 11:19 am
My last post was removed, but I still want to know what happened to the govenor races in New Jersey and Verginia, and the senate race in Massachussets. I want to know what happened to Air America, and I’ll really want to know what will happen to some of the seats in November…
Posted by: melton | February 14, 2010, 11:22 am 11:22 am
Go to WAR with Iran?…….Anti-American Pig! Draft Dodger!!!! Liar, his breathing was labled and his answers were contradictory.
Posted by: sara | February 14, 2010, 11:22 am 11:22 am
JW: Bush and Cheney were the best terrorist recruiters the Taliban and Al-Qaeda ever had! Way to go Bushie! Way to go Dickie!
Posted by: Sentinel1946 | February 14, 2010, 11:22 am 11:22 am
Cheney has a lot in common with the terrorist. No other nation would want him. A bad position to be in knowing that more than 80% of the planet dislikes you.
Posted by: rightbehind | February 14, 2010, 11:22 am 11:22 am
ABC NEWS. Please ask ‘Mr. Cheney’ the following question:
“Mr. Cheney does your continued frustration with the current administration emanate from your current experience of no longer being in power?”
Posted by: Tom G. | February 14, 2010, 11:23 am 11:23 am
uhmmm…….9/11…shoebomber, McVeigh…he is an “expert”? NOT!!!
Posted by: sara | February 14, 2010, 11:24 am 11:24 am
You see! I was right! Look at all the venom being spewed here! What kind of people bash somebody they don’t even know, and stand in divine judgement over? I will tell you: the same kind of people that will lose many senate seats in November, and give the house back to the Repubs!
Posted by: melton | February 14, 2010, 11:26 am 11:26 am
If Cheney was waterboarded – he would cry like a baby. He is a coward after all…
Posted by: Sentinel1946 | February 14, 2010, 11:26 am 11:26 am
How can we expect others to treat our troops by the Geneva Conventions when we decide to ignore them? azfire >>>> Because we wear a uniform and dont act as SPY or as we now call them enemy combatant. AND GUESS what our enemy cuts their heads off unless we KILL them first. I am so tired of the COMPLETE ignorance of the current history. THESE are NOT SOLDIERS we are capturing they are ENEMY combatants. They DESERVE NO rights in fact we can HANG them if we had a President that had an brass. The Obama administration and their hard core supporters are naive and foolish.
Posted by: ChicagoBob | February 14, 2010, 11:27 am 11:27 am
melton: Devine ignorance…
Posted by: Sentinel1946 | February 14, 2010, 11:28 am 11:28 am
Our enemy are WOMEN on the battlefield. They wear no uniform they have honor. They hide behind their children behind innocent children in hospitals and in religious locations. They have NO HONOR they deserve no mercy.
Posted by: ChicagoBob | February 14, 2010, 11:29 am 11:29 am
i think Chaney should be thrown in jail.
Posted by: joe blow | February 14, 2010, 11:30 am 11:30 am
There is too much freedom in this country. There are so many innocent people dying everyday due to terrorists attacks. You will realize these things only if you or your beloved ones are attacked. Ofcourse, then the equations will change.
Prevention is better than cure. You should use all the possible techniques to get information from the captured terrorists. They dont deserve any fundamental rights deserved by other civilians. Gandhian principle wont work with terrorists. Its absolutely foolish to treat terrorists like civilians.
Posted by: shivaglal | February 14, 2010, 11:31 am 11:31 am
Draft Dodging Coward!!! ABC, you should be Ashamed of your choice of Guest….this Man is Not an American! He is a Criminal/Terrorist
Posted by: sara | February 14, 2010, 11:32 am 11:32 am
The key is to educate, inform and hold the officials accountable.
Speak without fear, seek the truth and stand up for your Constitutional rights.
Posted by: David\Edub | February 14, 2010, 11:34 am 11:34 am
Jerry, your post makes no sense……..except, of course, it gives you the opportunity to slander a man you know nothing about while you hide in the anonymity of the internet. Now, WHO is the biggest coward this country has ever seen???
Posted by: ncpilot09 | February 14, 2010, 11:41 am 11:41 am
I think if Cheney were put to the waterboard, we’d find out a whole lot of dirty secrets about him and the Bush administration.
Posted by: Jake | February 14, 2010, 11:42 am 11:42 am
Why can’t Cheney volunteer to be waterboarded live on national tv. Let’s see how long he lasts – let’s see if his opinion of whether it’s torture or not changes.
So – cheney – you man enough to take on this challenge?
Posted by: Sara | February 14, 2010, 11:42 am 11:42 am
I always hear Cheney defending the effectiveness of waterboarding.But if it’s such an effective technique why was it necessary to be done 87 times on KSM?
Posted by: jimmy myers | February 14, 2010, 11:46 am 11:46 am
Perhaps it’s more an issue of policy stated publicly as well as the willingness to delegate. (Cheney wants to, Obama does not) I expect that if the President were informed that a technique, any technique, if used would save American lives, then he would immediately issue the order. It would be done in secret. If not, would that not be a dereliction of duty to protect Americans, as Commander in Chief?
Posted by: justanotheropinion123 | February 14, 2010, 11:47 am 11:47 am
Cheney complained that, at the end of his last term, G W Bush stopped listening to him.
That was one thing in Bush’s favor.
When a very wealthy CEO allows his employees’ pension fund to be raided for $25M through a merger loophole so that the board can award him an additional $20M bonus, there’s no question as to his humanity.
Posted by: The_Mick | February 14, 2010, 11:52 am 11:52 am
Cheney is a text book sociopath……A sociopath is a person who has antisocial personality disorder. The term sociopath is no longer used to describe this disorder. The sociopath is now described as someone with antisocial personality disorder.
The main characteristic of a sociopath is a disregard for the rights of others. Sociopaths are also unable to conform to what society defines as a normal personality. Antisocial tendencies are a big part of the sociopath’s personality. This pattern usually comes into evidence around the age of 15. If it is not treated, it can develop into adulthood.
A major personality behavior trait is the violation of the rights of others. This can appear as a disregard for the physical or sexual well-being of another.
In other words he truly believe what he says and he believes his actions to be……well NORMAL. I say lets water-board him, and sodomize him with a broomstick. Lets strip him naked and threaten him beatings and vicious dogs snapping at his Johnson. Maybe then we might find out where in the world is Jimmy Hoffa.
Posted by: GoBama | February 14, 2010, 12:03 pm 12:03 pm
LOL.. ok ok I think we should have got them all strung out on drugs THEN water boarded them.. and as to the guy that mentioned they did it multi times.. well we could always limit the times used to 20 and keep count by removing fingers and toes.. HEY I BET THATS WHY ITS CALLED WAR.. the whole inflicting as much pain a suffering as possible thing..
I think we should capture the family after we capture a terrorist.. and start from there.. results are a wonderful thing.. give me an hour and a few family members and I will get any answer you want.. Cheney was just to kind hearted.
You all have the weak.. “I’m locked in here with them” attitude..I’m more the “they are locked in here with me ” type.
weak = weak = death
Ruthless = Strong = life
keep that in mind weaklings.
you people are victims.
Posted by: Danny | February 14, 2010, 12:16 pm 12:16 pm
Yes Jay. I know what you mean. That is what is so scary. The party who set the country back 100 years, is now on the verge of coming back, mainly because the Americans are ssoooooooooooooooooo naive. Let them rule for another 8 years, it’s going to be so nice. China, India, Brazil, and others are just waiting for that to happen. Probably that is why Rome fell. Excess of stupidity, and a few psychotic liders.
Posted by: MARCIO MELO | February 14, 2010, 12:17 pm 12:17 pm
It is no wonder the US has lost it’s reputation for fairness and has become a target for scramble brained jihadists.
Posted by: KBW | February 14, 2010, 12:35 pm 12:35 pm
Cheney is a gift to the Dems. The man is insane and just serves to remind America how far we fell during the Bush/Cheney era.
Posted by: Joseph | February 14, 2010, 12:38 pm 12:38 pm
Joseph, he is so much a gift to the dems that they are losing seats left and right and will lose many more to the repubs come November and that is what the American people feel…
Posted by: andrew | February 14, 2010, 12:41 pm 12:41 pm
Cheney seems to forget that Bush himself stopped using waterboarding and his DOJ withdrew the memos authorizing their use. So if not waterboarding really makes America unsafe, then Cheney ought to be attacking his old boss. He isn’t, because this is really about politics, not policies.
Posted by: Jim | February 14, 2010, 12:45 pm 12:45 pm
Go to WAR with Iran?…….Anti-American Pig! Draft Dodger!!!! Liar, his breathing was labled and his answers were contradictory.
Posted by: sara | Feb 14, 2010 11:22:23 AM
=======================================
Hi, Sara, do you mean Anti-American, Liar, Draft Dodger is for Obama? Right? Because Obama and AG, Eric Holder have made a huge efforts to protect and improve THE RIGHTS OF TERRORISTS ON THE TWO WARS. In addition Obama’s lied to Congress and Citizens that the Stimulus Package, US$787,000,000,000.00 should create 3,500,000 jobs, but so far only 600,000 mostly temporary jobs have saved.
OBAMA IS CONTRADICTORY POT which sent American precious warriors of 30,000 for
victory from the two wars, but in terms of human rights, Obama has put our enemies into court in USA for trial.
Posted by: OBAMA IS CONTRADICTORY | February 14, 2010, 3:07 pm 3:07 pm
These fanatics take their “orders” from their god.
You think someone who’s willing to blow himself/herself up for his/her god would choose to obey the Geneva Convention over obeying their god?
Terrorists had been torturing, abusing and killing their prisoners long before Abu Ghraib or Iraq.
So wised up and don’t be a tool.
Posted by: NaivePres | February 14, 2010, 8:00 pm 8:00 pm
jimmy myers posted “I always hear Cheney defending the effectiveness of waterboarding.But if it’s such an effective technique why was it necessary to be done 87 times on KSM?”
Waterboarding and other torture work beautifully, if you want to make someone confess to a crime they didn’t commit. Cheney sounds like the type of person who, when he was a little boy, loved to pull the wings off of butterflies.
BTW, the FBI brought family members in to talk to the underwear bomber and he’s giving them valuable intelligence. So much for the “need” to waterboard.
Posted by: Faurtz8 | February 14, 2010, 10:55 pm 10:55 pm
I’m not a fan of Cheney and his past performance as VP. But, to say that we’re wrong for waterboarding a known terrorist who wants nothing more than to KILL ALL Americans – kill you, your family, friends, etc. just because we’re infidels in their eyes, is just idiocy. They are terrorists! The Geneva Convention Does Not pertain to them. Civil Rights, huh. You going to afford Amhad his rights when he’s over here for the sole purpose of killing Americans and all that we stand for. Wake up!
Posted by: Amercan Voice | February 15, 2010, 12:28 am 12:28 am
We should be prepared to and incourage the use of interrogation against any of those involved in attacks against us.
Cheney is right.
Posted by: Grunger | February 15, 2010, 11:24 am 11:24 am
Now, with a confession of violating Federal crimes Cheney can be arrested, tried, and if he’s lucky, maybe even waterboarded.
Posted by: K_R_H | February 18, 2010, 10:12 am 10:12 am
I don’t love Cheney but…. when it comes to interrogating a TERRORIST that won’t talk and tried to blow up a civilian aircraft filled with AMERICANS. This “torture” could save lives. Water boarding isn’t going to kill the guy or even leave scars. He might be afraid of taking a shower for a while but please….this info could save lives. Please folks look at the big picture!!!
Posted by: BStrange | February 22, 2010, 11:40 am 11:40 am