Clinton mocks Cheney over his defence of waterboarding

Washington, Apr 23 (ANI): US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has mocked former vice president Dick Cheney at a Capitol Hill review of her first three months in office.

"It won't surprise you that I don't consider him a particularly reliable source," Clinton said, dismissing Cheney's claim that classified documents prove that harsh interrogations of terror suspects yielded vital intelligence.

Clinton cut off Republican Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), who demanded to know whether she would advise President Barack Obama to release the documents. "I'm not going to share that with you," the Daily News quoted Clinton, as saying.

At a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, Clinton also clashed with Chris Smith (R-N.J.), a fervent pro-life advocate, and defended her push for family planning and contraception in international aid efforts.

Smith ripped Clinton for recently accepting an award in the name of Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, a group Smith said "killed over 305,000 children by abortion in the US and millions more worldwide."

Clinton responded icily: "I deeply respect your passionate views but we obviously have a profound disagreement."

In foreign aid efforts, "we are now an administration that will protect the rights of women, including reproductive health care."

Earlier, in giving herself a review of nearly 100 days in office, Clinton looked upon her term at the State Department and declared it pretty good. Then she asked for more money.

"Just as we would not deny ammunition to American troops heading into battle, we cannot send our diplomats into the field without the tools they need," Clinton said.

"If we fail to invest in diplomacy," Clinton said, "we will eventually spend far more paying for that mistake."

Even before Clinton got to ask for a funding boost, members of the audience gave her support. "Secretary Clinton, please ask more for diplomacy and less for war," one woman called out. (ANI)