"Q Would you agree a dunk in water is a no-brainer if it can save lives?
"THE VICE PRESIDENT: It's a no-brainer for me, but for a while there, I was criticized as being the vice president "for torture". We don't torture. That's not what we're involved in."
The vice president immediately denied he was referring to water-boarding.
"I didn't say anything about water-boarding... He didn't even use that phrase," he told reporters. However, maybe the reporter did not need to. The rapport between interviewer and interviewee suggests that they knew very well what they were talking about.
In an interview, Mr Cheney agreed that "a dunk in the water" for terrorism suspects during questioning in order to save American lives was a "no-brainer".
His comments have provoked outrage from anti-torture and human rights groups.
When asked about the remark, President Bush said that the United States does not use torture and was not going to.
"What's really a no-brainer is that no US official, much less a vice-president, should champion torture," said Larry Cox.
US interrogation techniques have been under the spotlight since evidence emerged of detainee abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the existence of secret CIA prisons.
The man who could be the leading Republican contender for the White House in 2008, Senator John McCain, has led a strong rear-guard action against the Bush Administration to outlaw torture once and for all.
In Iraq, claims of torture by police have become common
His efforts were prompted by the abuses against Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib facility and reports from other detention centres in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
The UN report says detainees' bodies often show signs of beating using electrical cables, wounds in heads and genitals, broken legs and hands, electric and cigarette burns.
Bodies found at the Baghdad mortuary "often bear signs of severe torture including acid-induced injuries and burns caused by chemical substances".
Many bodies have missing skin, broken bones, back, hands and legs, missing eyes, missing teeth and wounds caused by power drills or nails, the UN report says.
Victims come from prisons run by US-led multinational forces as well as by the ministries of interior and defence and private militias, the report said.
I don't understand what those who accept torture are thinking they'll get out of it. Isn't torture notoriously bad for gaining information you don't already have? I think it could be used effectively to get confessions but to get new information? HOw do you know the person you are torturing isn't simply making something up? If you were being tortured wouldn't you make something up to get it to stop? I sure would.
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