Dick 'signed off' on waterboarding of three gitmo prisoners

Vice President Dick Cheney, in a stunning admission Monday, said that he personally authorized the “enhanced interrogations” of 33 suspected terrorist detainees held at Guantanamo Bay and approved the waterboarding of three so-called “high-value” prisoners held at the facility.

“What we did with respect to al Qaeda high-value detainees, if I can put it in those terms, I think there were a total of about 33 who were subjected to enhanced interrogation; only three of those who were subjected to waterboarding -- Khalid Sheik Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah, and a third, al Nashiri.

That's it, those three guys,” Cheney told the conservative Washington Times, according to a transcript of the interview released by the vice president’s office.Cheney’s remarks were made as part of the Bush administration’s two-week media campaign that aims to highlight the Bush administration’s “accomplishments” over the past eight years.

The White House has published two lengthy reports, Highlights of Accomplishments and Results of the Administration of George W. Bush, and 100 Things Americans May Not Know About the Bush Administration Record in an attempt to change the dialogue about his failed presidency.But Cheney’s brazen responses to questions revolving around torture do not appear to be helping the White House make its case and instead is leading to calls for a criminal investigation.“I signed off on it; others did, as well, too,” Cheney said about waterbaording.

“I thought that it was absolutely the right thing to do. I thought the legal opinions that were rendered were sound. I think the techniques were reasonable in terms of what they were asking to be able to do. And I think it produced the desired result.”

The Abu Zubaydah case was the first time that waterboarding was used against a prisoner in the “war on terror,” according to Pentagon and Justice Department documents, news reports and several books written about the Bush administration’s interrogation methods.

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