U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney in an interview Monday with ABC News admitted that the use of water-boarding was permissible for 9/11 mastermind, Khalid Sheik Mohammed.
Cheney, considered one of the most powerful vice presidents in U.S. history, supported his position that harsh interrogation techniques were appropriate for KSM.
KSM was captured in an early morning raid in March 2003. He is identified in the 9/11 Commission Report as the “principal architect of the 9/11 attacks,” and its parent plot, Oplan Bojinka.
Cheney in the interview with Jonathan Karl said KSM in the years following his detention had offered interrogators invaluable information regarding the workings of the al-Qaida terrorist cartel.
When asked about the legality of harsh interrogation tactics conducted by CIA officers, and others, Cheney maintained water-boarding was not categorically defined as torture.
“I think those who allege that we’ve been involved in torture, or that somehow we violated the Constitution or laws with the terrorist surveillance program, simply don't know what they’re talking about,” the vice president said.
Water-boarding is a form of simulated drowning whereby water is poured over the towel-wrapped head of the detainee. Opinions vary whether the technique is considered a form of torture, though the U.S. State Department in 2005 recognized the “submersion of the head in water” as a form of torture.
KARL: And on KSM, one of those tactics, of course, widely reported was water-boarding. And that seems to be a tactic we no longer use. Even that you think was appropriate?
CHENEY: I do.
U.S. President George Bush in 2007 signed an order banning torture for terrorist suspects, though not specifically water-boarding. The CIA considered that legal justification for the tactic, though it emerged in September 2007 that Bush had ordered a halt to the practice.
