WASHINGTON, Dec. 15, 2008 (Reuters) — Vice President Dick Cheney said on Monday the military prison at Guantanamo Bay could not be responsibly closed until the U.S. war on terror is over and he defended the practice of subjecting detainees to simulated drowning during questioning.
Cheney, in an interview with ABC News, said he was aware of the interrogation tactics used again Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks, including the practice of waterboarding, which simulates drowning.
Asked if he thought, in hindsight, any of the tactics went too far, Cheney said, “I don’t.” Questioned about whether he thought the reported use of waterboarding on Mohammed was appropriate, Cheney replied, “I do.”
The vice president was asked when the United States could responsibly close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which was set up to hold detainees in President George W. BushÂ’s war on terror launched after September 11.
“Well, I think that that would come with the end of the war on terror,” Cheney said, adding no one knows when that might be.
“In previous wars, we’ve always exercised the right to capture the enemy and then hold them until the end of the conflict.
“The same basic principle ought to apply here in terms of our right to capture the enemy and hold them,” Cheney said, noting that in many cases the captives’ home countries did not want them back and no other nation was willing to take them.
The vice president said Bush and many other people would like to close Guantanamo Bay but other issues had to be addressed first.
“That includes, what are you going to do with the prisoners held in Guantanamo? And nobody yet has solved that problem,” Cheney said.
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