Cheney says Obama risks new terror attacks

WASHINGTON (CNN) - The Obama administration has endangered Americans and opened the country to further attack by reversing Bush administration anti-terrorism policies such as harsh interrogations of suspects, former Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday.

Cheney told CNN's "State of the Union" that the Bush administration's "alternative" interrogation techniques were "absolutely essential" to preventing further attacks like the al Qaeda strikes on New York and Washington. Critics said those techniques amounted to the torture of prisoners in American custody.

"President Obama campaigned against it all across the country, and now he is making some choices that, in my mind, will, in fact, raise the risk to the American people of another attack," Cheney said.

During Sunday's wide-ranging interview, Cheney also defended the Bush administration's economic record, arguing he and President George Bush handled multiple crises as best they could. The administration took office in 2001 with a budget surplus and left with deep deficits and higher unemployment, but Cheney said he and Bush had to deal with the 9/11 attacks, the resulting war in Afghanistan, the disaster of 2005's Hurricane Katrina and the costly and ultimately unpopular invasion of Iraq.

"Stuff happens, and an administration has to be able to respond to that and we did," he said.