Fact-Checkers Dismantle Cheney’s Pro-Torture Arguments

[su_right_ad]Besides the fact that Dick Cheney’s policies haven’t and don’t work, his facts are just wrong.

First PolitiFact rated Cheney’s claim that terrorists were not covered by the Geneva Convention “mostly false,” writing:

Cheney has a point that unlawful combatants are not afforded as high a level of protection as prisoners of war or civilians. However, his comment glosses over the fact that unlawful combatants are still accorded a minimum degree of protection, including a ban on “violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture,” and “outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment,” both of which have been validated by the Supreme Court.

[su_thin_right_skyscraper_ad]PunditFact (a related venture) next called Cheney’s claim that Saddam Hussein had a decade-long tie to al Qaida “entirely false,” just short of their worst rating of “Pants on Fire,” writing:

“Two comprehensive, high-level government reports largely refute that statement. That includes one Pentagon study that relied on a trove of secret Iraqi government documents that fell into American hands after the invasion.”

Cheney dismissed Chuck Todd’s claim that we prosecuted Japanese soldiers for waterboarding during WWII.

…Washington Post fact checker Glenn Kessler gave that argument three Pinocchios(out of four), calling it an “excellent example of political misdirection.” Kessler concluded:

“Cheney dismissed too cavalierly Todd’s question about the prosecution of Japanese soldiers for waterboarding. One could quibble about whether these practices were exactly like the techniques practiced by CIA interrogators. But Todd raised a legitimate question and, contrary to Cheney’s assertion, waterboarding was an important charge in a number of the lesser-profile cases. Moreover, waterboarding also resulted in at least one court martial during the Vietnam War.”

D.B. Hirsch

D.B. Hirsch is a political activist, news junkie, and retired ad copy writer and spin doctor. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.