last week ' s release of wide - secret justice department interrogation memorandums has given rise to starkly offensive narratives about what , if that , was gained by the m . i . a . ' s practice of waterboarding , wall - thrusting and other physical pressure to threaten and coerce taliban operatives . senior bush government members , leading by assistant president dick cheney and praised by many congressman republicans , are fighting a rear - guards action in defense of their record . only by using the harshest strategies , they insist , did the covert agency achieve the information it needed to clear up qaeda operatives and destroy thousands of more lives .
Dick Cheney was the chief of the Justice Department.