Not that people didn't assume, highly suspect or know deep down inside already, but Dick Cheney came out yesterday and admitted that he approved of and condoned torture tactics. With just a few short weeks left in the Bush/Cheney Administration, the sinister Vice President brazenly acknowledged that not only does he believe in waterboarding, he supported it.
From RawStory:
Cheney obviously could care less that the American people know that he is in favor of remaking America into an evil empire like that that rules his own head. Despite overwhelming evidence that conducting torture has increased the ranks of Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations he approves of torture. Despite more and more Americans losing their lives overseas and the global goodwill towards our country that vanished overnight, he approves of torture. Despite the fact that waterboarding by Americans doesn't even give us good information, he approves of torture.
When asked by ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl whether he approved of interrogation tactics used against a so-called "high value prisoner" at the controversial Guantanamo Bay prison, Mr. Cheney, in a break from his history of being press-shy, admitted to giving official sanctioning of torture.
"I supported it," he said regarding the practice known as "water-boarding," a form of simulated drowning. After World War II, Japanese soldiers were tried and convicted of war crimes in US courts for water-boarding, a practice which the outgoing Bush administration attempted to enshrine in policy.
"I was aware of the program, certainly, and involved in helping get the process cleared, as the agency in effect came in and wanted to know what they could and couldn't do," Cheney said. "And they talked to me, as well as others, to explain what they wanted to do. And I supported it."
He added: "It's been a remarkably successful effort, and I think the results speak for themselves."
ABC asked him if in hindsight he thought the tactics went too far. "I don't," he said.
Dick Cheney is a sick, deluded and evil man. So what does that say for the Congress of the United States that has given him a free pass? Shame on every single one of them that did not sign up to prosecute Cheney. Sure, there were a few that wanted to but not nearly enough. Congress ignored its duty as a check on the Executive branch and now Cheney is ready to get away scot free.
Guantanamo Bay will be closed under Obama (and hopefully all sites where torture exists) which is great but it does not dish out the necessary justice that Cheney deserves. Either Obama, or the judicial system in some form must act to show the world we do not only abhor torture, but prosecute and incarcerate those that do.
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