Cheney and Torture

It was only a matter of time before Dick Cheney began telling us how useful “enhanced interrogation methods” actually were. In the final analysis, the former vice president is one of those most responsible for that dark chapter in the Bush era “war on terror.” Right on the heels of Osama bin Laden’s assassination, Republicans set off a new torture debate. They, too, want some credit for the success of the commando raid to make up for the years of international criticism they endured because of the human rights abuses committed in the name of combating al-Qaida. Liz Cheney’s conservative activist organization “Keep America Safe” is making an especially big deal about it. Then as now, her father holds the opinion that waterboarding, whereby drowning is simulated, is not torture, and that it must again be used on high-level terrorists captured in the future. At the beginning of 2009, President Obama did away with that leftover from the Bush administration, calling it exactly what it is: torture. The White House needs to reiterate that it doesn’t fit with the values of this government. To do otherwise would signal a declaration of moral bankruptcy and disregard for international law.