Dick Cheney On Torture : I would do it again, ‘results speak for themselves’

During a speech Friday at American University, former Vice President Dick Cheney dismissed accusations that he is a war criminal and said if given the opportunity to waterboard again, he’d do it.

“If I would have to do it all over again, I would,” Cheney said. “The results speak for themselves.”

Many consider the use of waterboarding to be torture, with many people calling the former Vice President a war criminal for his endorsement of the technique, but Cheney disagrees.

“Some people called it torture. It wasn’t torture,” Cheney told AU’s television station ATV.

Dick Cheney also told The Eagle that President Barack Obama’s response to Syria and Russia’s takeover of Crimea has been weak. “The president indicated that if the Syrians used chemical weapons there would be consequence,” he said. “They used chemical weapons and there were no consequences. That conveyed a sense of weakness; that you don’t have to pay attention to what he [the president] says because he won’t follow through.”

“Putin has gotten away with Crimea,” he added in reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

On the National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance program, Cheney said he does not have “any problems with our people doing that.” He called NSA leaker Edward Snowden a traitor, stating that his actions have been “devastating” to America.

Agencies/Canadajournal