[The Hill] Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Thursday the CIA should restart the controversial enhanced interrogation program used during the George W. Bush administration."If it were my call, I would not discontinue those programs. I'd have them active and ready to go," Cheney said during an interview with Fox Business. "And I'd go back and study them and learn."
Cheney, a former secretary of Defense, has long defended the interrogation program that was launched after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. While critics denounce the techniques that were used as torture, Cheney says the program was necessary to keep the nation safe.
"I think the techniques we used were not torture. A lot of people try to call it that, but it wasn’t deemed torture at the time," he told Maria Bartiromo. "People want to go back and try to rewrite history, but if it were my call, I’d do it again."
Following the capture of terrorist suspects like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind behind 9/11, Cheney said the only method to collect information couldn't just be "please tell us."
"You tell me that the only method we have is 'please, please, pretty please, tell us what you know?' Well, I don’t buy that," Cheney said.