Dick Cheney: Vice President for Torture and War

IT DIDN'T START WITH ABU GHRAIBJeffrey Steinberg

In a rare display of editorial candor, The Washington Post devoted its lead editorial of Oct. 26, 2005 to Vice President Dick Cheney. Under the banner headline "Vice President for Torture," the Post editors wrote: "Vice President Cheney is aggressively pursuing an initiative that may be unprecedented for an elected official of the executive branch: He is proposing that Congress legally authorize human rights abuses by Americans. 'Cruel, inhuman and degrading' treatment of prisoners is banned by an international treaty negotiated by the Reagan administration and ratified by the United States. The State Department annually issues a report criticizing other governments for violating it. Now Mr. Cheney is asking Congress to approve legal language that would allow the CIA to commit such abuses against foreign prisoners it is holding abroad. In other words, the vice president has become an open advocate of torture." →