"I'd do it again in a minute"

“It worked. It’s worked now for 13 years. We’ve avoided another mass casualty event against the United States,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I’d do it again in a minute.”

Senate Democrats last week released a report that described interrogation tactics including waterboarding, sleep deprivation, rectal feedings and confinements in coffin-sized boxes for more than a week. Many have called the actions torture, saying that they violate international agreements, but Mr. Cheney maintained that the administration consulted with lawyers at the time and made sure not to cross that line.

“Torture to me is an American citizen on a cell phone making the last call to his four young daughters shortly before he burns to death on the upper floors of the World Trade Center on 9/11,” he said.