By KUNA,
Washington : Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday defended the Bush administration’s controversial policies on detainees, terrorist surveillance and intelligence gathering as justified during the “war on terror.
” In an interview on Fox News, Cheney said the Bush administration’s policies were the main reason the country has not had a terrorist attack in seven years. He said he believed President George W. Bush exercised legitimate constitutional authority to help defend the nation and disagreed with calls to limit presidential authority.
“If you think about what Abraham Lincoln did during the Civil War, what Franklin Delano Roosevelt did during World War II. They went far beyond anything we’ve done in a global war on terror,” said Cheney, who leaves office January 20 as one of the most powerful and unpopular Vice-Presidents in recent history.
Cheney gave a blunt and unapologetic response to questions about his role in some of the most controversial issues of the past eight years, including the invasion of Iraq, warrant-less surveillance of US citizens, and harsh interrogation tactics.
At a time of war, he said the President’s responsibilities included collecting intelligence, “and therefore I think you’re fully justified in setting up a terror surveillance program to be able to intercept the communications of people who are communicating with terrorists outside the United States.” “I think you can have a robust interrogation program with respect to high value detainees,” Cheney said.
“Now those are all steps we took that I believe the president was fully authorized in taking, and provided invaluable intelligence, which has been the key to our ability to defeat Al-Qaeda over these last seven years.” Cheney admitted he thought that bin Laden was alive but questioned whether he was still effectively running Al-Qaeda.
“He’s been holed up in a way where he’s not even been communicating and there are questions about whether or not he’s even running the operation,” said Cheney.
Cheney fired back at Vice-President-elect Joseph Biden’s comment that he was probably “the most dangerous vice president” in US history, saying he did not take such statements seriously.
In a separate interview broadcast today on ABC, Biden said the Bush administration’s policies have not been healthy for U.S. foreign policy or national security. He said the policies have created, and not dissuaded, more terrorists.