Cheney Might Be Right on Torture

It's hard to believe a word Dick Cheney says but that doesn't mean his claims that "enhanced interrogation" saved lives should be dismissed out of hand, Richard Cohen writes in the Washington Post. The former vice president has been loudly defending the program, and it would be a mistake not to at least consider the possibility that he isn't lying about memos proving it worked, writes Cohen.

Cheney's mistaken assertions ahead of the Iraq war have left him with a gigantic credibility gap, Cohen notes, but his claims that memos exist demonstrating the interrogation program's efficacy are too important to be ignored—and are easy to prove or disprove. "The Obama administration ought to call Cheney's bluff, if it is that, and release the memos," Cohen concludes. "If even a stopped clock is right twice a day, this could be Cheney's time." (More torture memo stories.)