Cheney's Torture Program Works

Let us Remember…

Former vice president Dick Cheney speaks with forked tongue when he says that his and the George W. Bush administration’s “Program” was legal. The fact is, the “Program” of cruel and unusual punishment violated the Constitution, US statutes, treaty prohibitions against torture, and other international laws. I suspect that Dick Cheney would have been offended, if, as a captive of war, (if he had bothered to acquaint himself with war) had been stripped naked. If he had been forced to engage in sexual acts, which he found both humiliating and blasphemous, I think he would have objected. One thinks of the Marquis de Sade. One thinks of sadism.

But he might not have lived long enough to tell the tale, as an estimated 100 plus detainees in US custody were tortured to death.

Aside from his fanciful notions about what “is legal,” Cheney’s assertion that “the program saved lives!” is especially perverse. That “The Program worked.” there can be little doubt. “The Program worked” to torture false confessions from detainees following 9-11, to misdirect the 9-11 commission’s findings. The 9-11 Commission was not allowed to interview those who confessed to the 9-11 crimes, or to interview their interrogators.

But the commission did order the records of those interrogations to be preserved. Yet, the CIA destroyed the video evidence of those interrogations (written reports of these interrogations are said to remain.) Conveniently, the chief suspect in those interrogations has “died.”

The primary value of confessions given under cruel and unusual punishment was to procure evidence of Saddam’s imminent threat, which justified the invasion of Iraq.

Cheney used a tortured, falsified account of 9-11 to use the 9-11 commission and other tortured testimony to sell the war on Iraq to the American people.

As far as “saving American lives” is concerned, Cheney’s torture “Program” has been credited with unleashing lethal fury upon US servicemen and women, to the tune of thousands killed, and tens of thousands maimed, not to mention the estimated 4-5 million Iraqis killed, wounded or displaced, an obvious victory for the war machine, of which Cheney is reputed to be a prime mover.

Dick Cheney has a right to speak. He has a right to speak in his defense, before judge and jury, against charges of war crimes. The same goes for every member of Cheney’s torture team.