On Sunday, NBC’s Meet the Press hosted former Vice President Dick Cheney to speak on the recent Democratic Senate Intelligence Committee report on the CIA’s use of enhanced interrogation tactics on suspected terrorists.
While Cheney spoke out in defense of the program, moderator Chuck Todd asked his guest “when you say waterboarding is not torture, then why did we prosecute Japanese soldiers in World War II for waterboarding?”
For his part, the former Vice President called out Todd for taking a “cheap shot” in comparing Japanese war criminals to CIA agents:
For a lot of stuff. Not for waterboarding. They did an awful lot of other stuff. To draw some kind of moral equivalent between waterboarding, judged by our Justice Department not to be torture, and what the Japanese did with the Bataan Death March and the slaughter of thousands of Americans, with the rape of Nanking and all of the other crimes they committed, that's an outrage.
It's a really cheap shot, Chuck, to even try to draw a parallel between the Japanese who were prosecuted for war crimes after World War II and what we did with waterboarding three individuals all of whom were guilty and participated in the 9/11 attacks.
Immediately after Cheney dismantled Todd’s question, the Meet the Press moderator continued to press the former Vice President over the program. Todd wondered:
Is there a reason these interrogations didn't happen on U.S. soil? Was there concern that maybe these folks would get legal protections--from the United States and that's why it was done at black sites?
Once again, Cheney rejected Todd’s questioning and reiterated his defense of the CIA program:
We didn't read them their Miranda Rights either. These are not American citizens. They are unlawful combatants. They are terrorists. They are people who have committed unlawful acts of war against the American people. And we put them in places where we could proceed with the interrogation program and find out what they knew so we could protect the country against further attacks. And it worked.
See relevant transcript below.
NBC’s Meet the Press
December 14, 2014
CHUCK TODD: When you say waterboarding is not torture, then why did we prosecute Japanese soldiers in World War II for waterboarding?
(OVERTALK)
DICK CHENEY: For a lot of stuff. Not for waterboarding. They did an awful lot of other stuff. To draw some kind of moral equivalent between waterboarding, judged by our Justice Department not to be torture, and what the Japanese did with the Bataan Death March and the slaughter of thousands of Americans, with the rape of Nanking and all of the other crimes they committed, that's an outrage. It's a really cheap shot, Chuck, to even try to draw a parallel between the Japanese who were prosecuted for war crimes after World War II and what we did with waterboarding three individuals--
TODD: I understand.
CHENEY: --all of whom were guilty and participated in the 9/11 attacks.
TODD: Is there a reason these interrogations didn't happen on U.S. soil? Was there concern that maybe these folks would get legal protections--
CHENEY: Well--
TODD: --from the United States and that's why it was done at black sites?
CHENEY We didn't read them their Miranda Rights either. These are not American citizens. They are unlawful combatants. They are terrorists. They are people who have committed unlawful acts of war against the American people. And we put them in places where we could proceed with the interrogation program and find out what they knew so we could protect the country against further attacks. And it worked.
