cheney
© AP
Washington: Former US Vice President Dick Cheney has praised President Barack Obama for authorizing the military operation that killed Osama bin Laden, but he lamented the end of controversial Bush-era interrogations that many conservatives believe to have contributed to America's greatest counterterrorism success.

Cheney appreciated Obama for sending Navy seals on a risky helicopter raid to Osama's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan

But he fanned the flames of a renewed debate over whether the so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" used by the Bush-era CIA were successful and lawful.

"Well, I think you've got to give him a lot of credit for making the decision to have the seal team six conduct the raid that got bin Laden. It's no question that was his responsibility and I think he handled it well," The Fox News quoted Cheney, as saying.

"I am still concerned about the fact that, I think a lot of the techniques that we had used to keep the country safe for more than seven years are no longer available. That they've been sort of taken off the table, if you will," he added.

Critics of the Bush-era anti-terror policies have suggested that the harsh interrogations were not essential for tracking down Osama and that the information could have been obtained by more humane means.

But Cheney and other supporters have accused the president of abandoning a strategy that had worked.