CIA Docs Don't Vindicate Cheney

By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff

Posted Aug 25, 2009 8:14 AM CDT

(Newser) – Dick Cheney has long insisted that two CIA documents from 2004 and 2005 would prove the value of torture. But after obtaining them yesterday, the Washington Independent says they do nothing of the kind. The documents actually suggest, albeit murkily, that non-abusive techniques were more effective. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s interrogators got some of their best intelligence not after the 183 times he was waterboarded, but with an old-fashioned trick: He believed another detainee had already given up the same info he shared.

Abu Zubaydah, meanwhile, identified Mohammed as the mastermind of 9/11 before enhanced interrogation techniques were used. Cheney says the documents vindicate him, because they “clearly demonstrate that the individuals subjected to Enhanced Interrogation Techniques provided the bulk of intelligence we gained,” essentially crediting torture for all the information the detainees provided. The Independent notes the documents do "not remotely make that case."

[Images (3)]

[Quotes (1)]

Former Vice President Dick Cheney speaks at the Gerald R. Ford Foundation Journalism Awards luncheon at the National Press Club in Washington, Monday, June 1, 2009. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

In this June 1, 2009 file photo, former Vice President Dick Cheney speaks at the National Press Club in Washington. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

In this March 1, 2003 file photo, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is seen shortly after his capture during a raid in Pakistan. (AP Photo/File)

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I’ve now formally asked the CIA to take steps to declassify those memos so we can lay them out there and the people have a chance to see what we obtained and what we learned and how good the intelligence was. - Dick Cheney

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