CIA torture: Former Vice President Dick Cheney says report is 'full of crap'

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Dick Cheney has dismissed a Senate report into the brutal interrogation techniques employed by the CIA as "full of crap."

The Former US Vice President said that the Senate Intelligence Committee report, which detailed claims that the intelligence agency tortured detainees in 'black site' prisons after the 2001 terror attacks on America, was "terrible" and "deeply flawed".

Mr Cheney admitted that he had not actually read the entire 6,000-page classified document – or the 500-page declassified and redacted executive summary.

But he told Fox News: "The notion that the agency was operating on a rogue basis was just a flat out lie."

Mr Cheney insisted that the methods were all legally justified and inconsistent with "torture" – though he admitted that he "didn't know all the allegations that are out there" and conceded that 'rectal rehydration' "was not one of the authorized or approved techniques".

He also rejected allegations that former President George W. Bush was unaware of events. "He was in fact an integral part of the program," he said. "He had to approve it before we moved forward with it. He knew everything he needed to know and wanted to know about the program."

Mr Cheney said he was bothered by criticism about the treatment of alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was waterboarded 183 times.

"He is in our possession, we know he’s the architect, what are we supposed to do? Kiss him on both cheeks?“ he said.

“How nice do you want to be to the murderers of 3,000 people on 9/11?”

And Mr Cheney insisted that the ends "justified the means".

"I’d do it again in a minute."