Cheney Clearly Ignored the US Constitution

From Democracy Now!

Former Vice President Dick Cheney lashed out at the Obama administration Sunday over Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to investigate whether CIA operatives broke the law while interrogating prisoners. During an interview on Fox News Sunday, Cheney described the probe as politically motivated and said it "offends the hell out of me.”

Vice President Cheney: “The approach of the Obama administration should be to come to those people who were involved in that policy and say, ‘How did you do it? What were the keys to keeping the country safe over that period of time?’ Instead, they’re out there now threatening to disbar the lawyers who gave us the legal opinions, threatening, contrary to what the President originally said, they’re going to go out and investigate the CIA personnel who carried out those investigations.”

In response to a question from host Chris Wallace, Dick Cheney defended interrogators who waterboarded prisoners and used electric drills and guns to threaten prisoners, even if done in violation of Justice Department guidelines.

Chris Wallace: “Do you think what they did—now that you’ve heard about it, do you think what they did was wrong?”

Cheney: “Chris, my sort of overwhelming view is that the enhanced interrogation techniques were absolutely essential in saving thousands of American lives, in preventing further attacks against the United States, in giving us the intelligence we needed to go find al-Qaeda, to find their camps, to find out how they were being financed. It was good policy. It was properly carried out. it worked very, very well.”

Wallace: “So, even these cases where they went beyond the specific legal authorization, you’re OK with it.”

Cheney: “I am.”

Appearing on ABC’s This Week, John Kerry, the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, accused Cheney of having disrespect for the Constitution. Kerry defended the Obama administration.

Sen. John Kerry: “I think there is a little bit of a tension between the White House itself and the lawyers in the Justice Department as they see the law and as what their obligation is. And in a sense, that’s good, that’s appropriate, because it shows that we have an attorney general who is not pursuing a political agenda, but who is doing what he believes the law requires him to do. And we have an administration, on the other hand, that is balancing some of those other interests.”