Dick Cheney on CIA Methods: 'I'd Do It Again in a Minute'

Former U.S. vice president Dick Cheney blasted a Senate Intelligence Committee report on enhanced interrogation tactics employed by the CIA in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday night, calling it "deeply flawed," "a terrible piece of work," and "full of crap."

Cheney said he had not read the entire 500-page report summary, which was released Tuesday, but defended the CIA's use of enhanced interrogation techniques, which committee chair Dianne Feinstein said in some cases amounted to "torture." Some of those tactics detailed in the report included waterboarding, "rectal rehydration," and, in one instance, placing a detainee in a "coffin size" confinement box for 11 days.

During the interview, which aired on Fox News's Special Report With Bret Baier on Wednesday night, Baier asked Cheney what his response was to people who "say America is better than these methods."

"I think what needed to be done was done. I think we were perfectly justified in doing it. And I'd do it again in a minute," Cheney answered.

"The CIA did a hell of a job, and they deserve our gratitude," he said.

Cheney was vice president from 2001 to 2008, presiding over the invasions of Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003.

"It did in fact produce actionable intelligence that was vital in the success of keeping the country safe from further attacks," Cheney said of the CIA's tactics.

However, the report raised serious doubts about that claim. The Senate Intelligence Committee "found the CIA's representations [about the necessity of such tactics] to be inaccurate and unsupported by CIA records."