Richard Cheney

On the Iraq War

Iraq Had WMDs

Saddam "is actively pursuing nuclear weapons at this time." (3/24/2002, CNN)

"There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends…and against us." (8/26/2002, VFW 103rd National Convention Speech) [1]

"We do know, with absolute certainty, that he [Saddam Hussein] is using his procurement system to acquire the equipment he needs in order to enrich uranium to build a nuclear weapon." (9/8/2002 on Meet the Press)

"What's happening, of course, is we're getting additional information that, in fact, Hussein is reconstituting his biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons programs." (9/13/2002, to Rush Limbaugh) (There was no such new intel) [2]

Mohammed Atta Met With Iraqi Intelligence

Gloria Borger (CBS News contributor): Well, you know that Mohammed Atta, the ringleader of the hijackers, actually met with Iraqi intelligence.

Dick Cheney: I know this. In Prague, in April of this year, as well as earlier. And that information has been made public. The Czechs made that public. Obviously, that's an interesting piece of information. (11/14/2001)

"Well, what we now have that's developed since you and I last talked, Tim, of course, was that report that's been pretty well confirmed, that he [Atta] did go to Prague and he did meet with a senior official of the Iraqi intelligence service in Czechoslovakia last April, several months before the attack. Now, what the purpose of that was, what transpired between them, we simply don't know at this point. But that's clearly an avenue that we want to pursue." (12/9/2001, Meet the Press)

"Now, is there a connection between the Iraqi government and the original World Trade Center bombing in '93? We know, as I say, that one of the perpetrators of that act did, in fact, receive support from the Iraqi government after the fact. With respect to 9-11, of course, we've had the story that's been public out there. The Czechs alleged that Mohamed Atta, the lead attacker, met in Prague with a senior Iraqi intelligence official five months before the attack, but we've never been able to develop anymore of that yet either in terms of confirming it or discrediting it. We just don't know." (9/14/2003, Meet the Press—after several reports explaining that Czech officials said they had no evidence of this meeting). [3]

On Torture

When interviewed in 2014 about torture by Chuck Todd, Cheney responded to Todd saying that 25 percent of the people tortured were innocent by saying "I have no problem as long as we achieve our objective, and our objective is to get the guys who did 9/11 and it is to avoid another attack against the United States.” [[4]]

Rest of Cheney's interview with Chuck Todd:

CHUCK 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--

DICK CHENEY:

Well--

CHUCK TODD:

--from the United States and that's why it was done at black sites?

DICK 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 attack.

CHUCK TODD:

Let me go through some of those techniques that were used, Majid Khan, was subjected to involuntary rectal feeding and rectal hydration. It included two bottles of Ensure, later in the same day Majid Khan's lunch tray consisting of hummus, pasta, sauce, nuts and raisins was pureed and rectally infused.

DICK CHENEY:

That wasn't--

CHUCK TODD:

Does that meet the definition of torture?

DICK CHENEY:

--that does not meet the definition of what was used in the program as--

CHUCK TODD:

I understand. But does that meet the definition of torture in your mind?

DICK CHENEY:

--in my mind, I've told you what meets the definition of torture. It's what 19 guys armed with airline tickets and box cutters did to 3,000 Americans on 9/11. What was done here apparently certainly was not one of the techniques that was approved. I believe it was done for medical reasons.

CHUCK TODD:

I mean, medical community has said there is no medical--

DICK CHENEY:

If you go and look, for example, at Jose Rodriguez book, and he was the guy running the program, he's got a very clear description of how, in fact, the program operated. With respect to that I think the agency has answered it and its response to the committee report and I--

CHUCK TODD:

--but you acknowledge this was over and above.

DICK CHENEY:

--that was not something that was done as part of the interrogation program.

CHUCK TODD:

But you won't call it torture.

DICK CHENEY:

It wasn't torture in terms of it wasn't part of the program. [[5]]