Cheney's Counterpunch

No apologies from Dick Cheney today: “In my long experience in Washington,” Cheney asserted, “few matters have inspired so much contrived indignation and phony moralizing as the interrogation methods applied to a few captured terrorists.” He asserted that “Torture was never permitted,” that the interrogations were legal, and reiterated that Nancy Pelosi was briefed on the methods. Cheney said to criticize the interrogations was “to libel the dedicated professionals who have saved American lives, and to cast terrorists and murderers as innocent victims.” He accused President Obama again of endangering the nation: “Releasing the interrogation memos was flatly contrary to the national security interest of the United States.” In one of the speeches harsher lines, he said “no moral value held dear by the American people obliges public servants ever to sacrifice innocent lives to spare a captured terrorist from unpleasant things.” He also used the occasion to grind his ax with The New York Times, lecturing the paper about its use of “euphemism,” which, considering Cheney later called waterboarding an “unpleasant thing,” may be a little much for some.