WASHINGTON -- Comments by Vice President Dick Cheney to a radio interviewer prompted questions yesterday about whether he advocated torturing terrorism detainees to obtain information.
The White House denied that Cheney had endorsed torture, and President Bush said the United States does not practice torture.
Cheney's remarks, in an interview Tuesday with a conservative talk-radio host from Fargo, N.D., stirred up fresh controversy over the interrogation technique known as "water-boarding," which experts say simulates drowning.
Human rights groups sharply criticized Cheney, and White House press secretary Tony Snow scrambled to explain what the vice president meant.
To save lives
The flap began when the interviewer told Cheney that some of his listeners believed that "if it takes dunking a terrorist in water, we're all for it, if it saves American lives."
The interviewer continued: "This debate seems a little silly given the threat we face, would you agree?"
Cheney replied: "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.
"We need to be able to continue that."
He was referring to the man, captured in Pakistan, who officials widely believe is the mastermind behind the Sept. 11 attacks.
Cheney was then asked: "Would you agree a dunk in water is a no-brainer if it can save lives?"
The vice president responded: "It's a no-brainer for me, but for a while there, I was criticized as being the vice president `for torture.' We don't torture. That's not what we're involved in."
Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International USA, took issue with Cheney's remarks, saying: "What's really a no-brainer is that no U.S. official, much less a vice president, should champion torture.
"Vice President Cheney's advocacy of water-boarding sets a new human rights low at a time when human rights is already scraping the bottom of the Bush administration barrel."
In water-boarding, a subject is strapped down and his head is held under water or his mouth and nose are smothered by a cloth soaked in water to induce a sensation of drowning.
The technique was used in the Spanish Inquisition during the Middle Ages and by the Japanese against American prisoners of war during World War II.
