Here's the relevant part of the transcript from Cheney's appearance on Meet the Press:

CHUCK TODD: Let me ask you, what do you say to Gul Rahman, what do you say to Sulaiman Abdula, what do you say to Khalid al-Masri? All three of these folks were detained, they had these interrogation techniques used on them. They eventually were found to be innocent. They were released, no apologies, nothing. What do we owe them? DICK CHENEY: Well-- CHUCK TODD: I mean, let me go to Gul Rahman. He was chained to the wall of his cell, doused with water, froze to death in C.I.A. custody. And it turned out it was a case of mistaken identity. DICK CHENEY: --right. But the problem I had is with the folks that we did release that end up back on the battlefield. Of the 600 and some people who were released out of Guantanamo, 30% roughly ended up back on the battlefield. Today we're very concerned about ISIS. Terrible new terrorist organization. It is headed by a man named Baghdadi. Baghdadi was in the custody of the U.S. military in Iraq in Camp Bucca. He was let go and now he's out leading the terror attack against the United States. I'm more concerned with bad guys who got out and released than I am with a few that, in fact, were innocent. CHUCK TODD: 25% of the detainees though, 25% turned out to be innocent. They were released. DICK CHENEY: Where are you going to draw the line, Chuck? How are-- CHUCK TODD: Well, I'm asking you. DICK CHENEY: --you going to know? CHUCK TODD: Is that too high? You're okay with that margin for error? DICK CHENEY: I have no problem as long as we achieve our objective. And our objective is to get the guys who did 9/11 and it is to avoid another attack against the United States.

That exchange leaves no room for mistaking former vice-president Cheney's position: better to chain a man to the wall of a cell, douse him in cold water, and leave him there to freeze to death, even if he later turns out to be innocent, than to release that same man and risk not that he detonates a nuclear bomb in Manhattan, but that he ends up "on the battlefield," where there's a chance he could harm Americans. What if fully one-in-four prisoners tortured by the CIA were innocent?

Cheney is still unmoved:

CHUCK TODD: Is that too high? You're okay with that margin for error? DICK CHENEY: I have no problem as long as we achieve our objective.

The ends justify the means.

There is no clearer illustration of the morally corrosive nature of torture than the once unthinkable position that Dick Cheney is unashamedly espousing on television. The position is even less defensible than the conceit that the Office of Legal Counsel defines what torture is. It is so indefensible that Cheney himself can scarcely maintain it.

Look what happened moments later in the interview:

CHUCK TODD: Is there a reason these interrogations didn't happen on U.S. soil? Was there concern that maybe these folks would get legal protections-- DICK CHENEY: Well-- CHUCK TODD: --from the United States and that's why it was done at black sites? DICK CHENEY: --we didn't read them their Miranda rights either. These are not American citizens. They are unlawful combatants. They are terrorists. They are people who have committed unlawful acts of war against the American people. And we put them in places where we could proceed with the interrogation program and find out what they knew so we could protect the country against further attack.

Mere seconds after confronting the fact that numerous prisoners subject to the CIA interrogation program were innocent, Cheney defends it by saying, "they are terrorists."