Cheney: Torture Is What Al Qaeda did to 3,000 Americans on 9/11

Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” former Vice President Dick Cheney explained the difference between water boarding and torture.

“Torture is  an American citizen on a cell phone making a last call to his four young daughters shortly before he burns to death in the upper levels of the Trade Center in New York City on 9/11,” he said. “There’s this notion that somehow there’s moral equivalence between what the terrorists did and what we do, and that’s absolutely not true. We were very careful to stop short of torture. The Senate has seen fit to label the report torture, but we worked hard to stay short of that definition.”

Cheney defended the use of “involuntary rectal feeding and hydration,” arguing it does not meet the definition of torture.

“I’ve told you what meets the definition of torture,” he added. “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.”

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