U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney leaves office next week, leaving behind a legacy of back-room deals and, more importantly, a legacy of torture.
Cheney in his eight years as vice president, and a career in civil service, paved the way for warrantless surveillance of the American people. Cheney also formed a team of legal experts that provided the justification necessary for harsh interrogation tactics, including waterboarding, which presumptive U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told lawmakers Thursday was a form of torture.
Using his chief counsel, David Addington, Cheney, along with John Yoo with the Office of Legal Counsel, drafted legal opinions justifying waterboarding and other extraordinary interrogation tactics considered torture by most international definitions of the term.
Holder, in his Senate confirmation hearing Thursday, told lawmakers on Capitol Hill the U.S. Justice Department was “badly shaken” by what he described as “improper political interference,” presumably at the hands of Cheney.
Though authorization was later reversed by outgoing U.S. President Bush, the Central Intelligence Agency admitted to waterboarding several “high-value detainees” in the security climate following the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. Though moral relativism arguments certainly apply in the case of Sept. 11, the U.S. officials in the Bush Administration crafted legal terms to justify their actions.
“Waterboarding is torture,” Holder said.
“Adherence to the rule of law strengthens security,” he told Senate officials. “America must remain a beacon to the world. We will lead by strength; we will lead by wisdom and we will lead by example.”
