Cheney denies comment hints at torture technique

Washington: Vice-President Dick Cheney has said he was not referring to an interrogation technique known as "waterboarding" when he told an interviewer this week that dunking terrorism suspects in water was a "no-brainer".

Cheney told reporters aboard Air Force Two on Friday night that he did not talk about any specific interrogation technique during his interview on Tuesday with a conservative radio host. "I didn't say anything about waterboarding. ... He didn't even use that phrase," Cheney said on a flight to Washington from South Carolina.

Growing furore

Earlier on Friday, White House press secretary Tony Snow told reporters that the vice-president was talking literally about "a dunk in the water", though neither Snow nor Cheney explained what that meant or whether such a tactic had been used against US detainees. "A dunk in the water is a dunk in the water," Snow said.

The comments were aimed at calming a growing furore over Cheney's comments, which were taken by many human rights advocates and legal experts as an endorsement of waterboarding as a method of questioning.

Coming shortly before the midterm elections, the remarks prompted a wide range of political figures from Sen John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, to Cheney's wife, Lynne to weigh in on the issue, providing another unexpected controversy for Republicans as they fight to keep control of Congress. Reporters peppered Snow with questions about the interview during Snow's two daily news briefings. In waterboarding, a prisoner is secured with his feet above his head and has water poured on a cloth over his face to simulate drowning.