White House denies Cheney endorsing "water boarding"

The White House on Friday denied that Vice President Dick Cheney's recent remarks on dunking a prisoner in water during interrogation was an endorsement of the questioning technique, known as "water boarding."

In an interview with a local radio in North Dakota on Tuesday, Cheney was asked if he agreed "a dunk in water is a no-brainer if it can save lives."

"It's a no-brainer for me," he replied.

Cheney added that he had been criticized as being the vice president "for torture." "We don't torture. That's not what we're involved in," he said.

At a press briefing on Friday, White House spokesman Tony Snow repeatedly denied that the vice president was talking about "water boarding," the interrogation technique of simulated drowning used on top suspects such as alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

"The vice president doesn't give away questioning techniques," he said.

"I'm telling you what the vice president's view is, which is it wasn't about water boarding and he wasn't talking about it," he said.

Snow said the administration "does believe in legal questioning techniques of known killers whose questioning can in fact be used to save American lives."

Human rights groups criticized Cheney's comments as an endorsement of "water boarding," in which the victim believed he was about to drown.

Source: Xinhua