Why Isn't This News?

From McClatchy:

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney has confirmed that U.S. interrogators subjected captured senior al-Qaida suspects to a controversial interrogation technique called "water-boarding," which creates a sensation of drowning.

Cheney indicated that the Bush administration doesn't regard water-boarding as torture and allows the CIA to use it. "It's a no-brainer for me," Cheney said at one point in an interview.

Cheney's comments, in a White House interview on Tuesday with a conservative radio talk show host, appeared to reflect the Bush administration's view that the president has the constitutional power to do whatever he deems necessary to fight terrorism.

I won't hold my breath waiting for this to end up on the 11 o'clock news. Or for that matter, even on the 24 hour news channels.

There is a record of a sitting Vice President admitting that the United States of America engages in torture - but nobody cares.

Lee Ann McBride, a spokeswoman for Cheney, denied that Cheney confirmed that U.S. interrogators used water-boarding or endorsed the technique.

"What the vice president was referring to was an interrogation program without torture," she said. "The vice president never goes into what may or may not be techniques or methods of questioning."

The White House's official transcript seems to indicate otherwise:

Q [Scott Hennen] I've heard from a lot of listeners -- that's what we do for a living, talk to good folks in the Heartland every day -- and I've talked to as many who want an increased military presence in Iraq as want us out, which seems to be the larger debate, at least coming from the left -- cut and run, get out of there. One fax said, when you talk to the Vice President, ask him when shock and awe is coming back to Iraq. Let's finish the job once and for all.

And terrorist interrogations and that debate is another example. And I've had people call and say, please, let the Vice President know that if it takes dunking a terrorist in water, we're all for it, if it saves American lives. Again, this debate seems a little silly given the threat we face, would you agree?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I do agree. And I think the terrorist threat, for example, with respect to our ability to interrogate high value detainees like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, that's been a very important tool that we've had to be able to secure the nation. [Emphasis mine.]

Disambiguation:

Scott: Our listeners like water boarding, do you?

VP: Yes. "That's been a very important tool that we've had."

Think about that. They're doing this in your name.

Alexis de Tocqueville said "America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great." Dick Cheney probably prides himself on never listening to Frenchmen, but the Bush/Cheney prosecution of the Global War on Terror^tm has done more to destroy America's 'Soft Power' and weaken our standing in the world than anything in the last 50 years. Even Vietnam was less damaging, if only because our power was seen as opposed to the Soviet Union.

My Grandparent's generation fought World War II and earned America her place atop the world's power structure. It took 405,399 American deaths and 671,846 wounded to earn the world's trust. It won't be regained in my life time. All so that BushCo and the Republicans can play 'tough guy' for political gain.

Dick Cheney Torture War on Terror