Former Vice President Dick Cheney on Monday defended the NSA’s alleged practice of monitoring the phone conversations of foreign leaders.
“We do have a fantastic intelligence capability, worldwide against all kinds of potential issues and concerns,” Cheney said in an interview with CNN. “We are vulnerable, as was shown on 9/11, and you never know what you’re going to need when you need it.”
Cheney said that the intelligence gathered on foreign leaders and other countries is valuable to help the government address various issues.
“We do collect a lot of intelligence. Without speaking about any particular target or group of targets, that intelligence capability is enormously important to the United States, to our conduct in foreign policy, to defense matters, economic matters, and I’m a strong supporter of it,” Cheney said.
