"Dick!"

Chalk up example number, 267 of torture that was for self-justification only -- or since we're dealing with Cheney, Libby & Addington, self-pleasure:

At the end of April 2003, not long after the fall of Baghdad, U.S. forces captured an Iraqi who Bush White House officials suspected might provide information of a relationship between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein’s regime. Muhammed Khudayr al-Dulaymi was the head of the M-14 section of Mukhabarat, one of Saddam’s secret police organizations. His responsibilities included chemical weapons and contacts with terrorist groups...

Two U.S. intelligence officers confirm that Vice President Cheney’s office suggested waterboarding an Iraqi prisoner, a former intelligence official for Saddam Hussein, who was suspected to have knowledge of a Saddam-al Qaeda connection.

So rather than "torture" to save "American Lives", Cheney demanded torture so he could post-hoc justify the sacrifice of American lives. Seems like the gigantic Dick move we've come to expect.

If only there were a picture of him enjoying pictures of torture that we could have someone refuse to release?

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]