Former Vice President Dick Cheney says he has no problem with killing terrorists — but adds they are often needed to squeeze for information about future attacks.
Cheney, appearing on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on
Newsmax TV, was asked whether he believes Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. military prison that houses terrorists, should be shut down.
"Guantanamo is a good place, a good facility, it makes sense to have that there. We need it," Cheney said.
"The only other option is to kill terrorists and I don't have any problem with killing terrorists, but lots of times we need access to them in order to get the intelligence we need to be able to anticipate future attacks."
Cheney said that unfortunately, Guantanamo Bay has been in the crosshairs of the Obama administration for closure.
"This comes from the very beginning of his service from when he became president. Within 48 or 72 hours of being sworn in, he announced he was going to close Guantanamo," Cheney said.
"He also wiped out the enhanced interrogations program that we've used very successfully among other things to get [Osama] Bin Laden.
"He took steps to basically negate a lot of things we put in place that had kept us safe for seven and a half years."
The U.S. is now exploring the relocation of remaining Guantanamo inmates to prisons on the mainland. One area being mentioned is North Carolina.
Cheney doesn't like the proposed plan because he believes it would create more terrorists.
"It's a bad idea. They can go in and convert some of the inmates to their own way of thinking," he said.
Cheney is author of a new book, "
Exceptional: Why the World Needs a Powerful America," written with his daughter, Liz Cheney, and published by Threshold Editions.
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