Since the release of the CIA Torture Report, critics of the policies have mostly made one of two arguments: “Torture is a despicable practice that is not only illegal under international law but also something that shouldn’t be considered by civilized society after millions of years of evolution, what are you a monster?!???!?” and/or “Torture makes America look bad and degrades our position in the world.”
Dick Cheney has decidedly been on the side of “torture the fuck out of them,” since he was an unprecedentedly powerful vice president. But way back in 1992, he agreed with internal deliberations that torture was a bad look and harmful to American interests.
When it was discovered that intelligence training manuals being distributed to U.S. trainees in Latin America contained torture instructions, the news reached Cheney, who was the then Defense Secretary.
The memo to Cheney made the same arguments about the image torture portrays to the world that critics are making today. Cheney ordered those instructions to be removed from the manuals and beneath his signature, left a two word note: “I concur.”
Cheney will probably say something like, “9/11, NINE/11, NEIN NEIN NEIN!!!,” when he’s asked about his change of heart but who cares, he’s been lying to the press constantly and shouldn’t be taken seriously anyway.
(Photo: Wikimedia)
