‘By normal beliefs,’ Cheney committed war crime: John Dean from Raw Story Breaking News

 by David Edwards and Muriel Kane

Former Vice President Dick Cheney may have acknowledged his complicity in a war crime when he told an interviewer on Sunday that he was "a big supporter" of the Bush administration's use of waterboarding on suspected terrorists.

Legal expert and one-time Nixon White House counsel John Dean appears to agree with that conclusion, although he cautiously told MSNBC's Keith Olbermann on Tuesday that Cheney had merely "admitted to torture, which once was a war crime."

"I'm not quite sure after the Bush administration lawyers got finished with it that it was," Dean continued, though his tone of voice made it clear that he didn't actually mean his words. "At least [Cheney] doesn't seem to believe that it is. But by normal beliefs, it is a war crime."

When Olbermann asked whether a statement made during a TV interview could be considered a legal confession, Dean answered, "It certainly is an admission against interest, and these are admissible in many proceedings."

In criminal law, an "admission against interest" is a statement which "tends to show guilt of the defendant," even though it does not amount to a full confession.

rest at http://rawstory.com/2010/02/cheney-admitted-torture/