WASHINGTON ( CNN ) -- Former Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday said his claim that enhanced interrogation techniques -- including waterboarding -- produced critical post-9/11 information was supported by a pair of intelligence reports released last week . Former VP Dick Cheney says enhanced interrogation techniques persuaded subjects `` to cooperate . '' `` The enhanced interrogation techniques were absolutely essential in saving thousands of American lives , '' he told `` Fox News Sunday . '' However , the two dossiers that were declassified at Cheney 's request do not disclose what kinds of techniques were used to elicit the intelligence . The only method occasionally cited by the reports is a routine one -- using information from one detainee to gain details from another . The two reports surfaced as the latest ammunition in the debate over whether the use of controversial interrogation techniques like stress positions , wall slamming , and waterboarding -- considered torture by critics -- helped prevent terrorist attacks . Cheney said the reports prove that two top al Qaeda suspects , Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Abu Zubayda , `` were uncooperative at first . '' But `` the application of enhanced interrogation techniques , specifically waterboarding -- especially in the case of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed -- is what really persuaded him he needed to cooperate , '' Cheney said . A U.S. government official with knowledge of the interrogation program told CNN that while the chronology is not spelled out in the two reports , Mohammed 's information became `` more voluminous and accurate '' after he was exposed to waterboarding 183 times . The official declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak on the subject . Zubaydah also talked more after being subjected to waterboarding , according to a third document -- a 2004 CIA inspector general 's report that was released last week . `` It is not possible to say definitively that the waterboard is the reason for Abu Zubaydah 's increased production , '' says the report , `` or if another factor , such as the length of detention , was the catalyst . Since the use of the waterboard , however , Abu Zubaydah has appeared to be cooperative . '' It also says that before his waterboarding , Mohammed provided little information . But the report is cautious on whether the enhanced interrogation techniques , or EITs , approved by the Bush administration helped the interrogation program get results . `` There is no doubt the program has been effective , '' the 2004 report says . `` Measuring the effect of the EITs , however , is a more subjective process and not without some concern . '' The CIA report also does not say whether the techniques -- which have since been banned -- were the only way to get the detainees to talk . `` The effectiveness of particular interrogation techniques in eliciting information that might not otherwise have been obtained can not be so easily measured , '' it says . And one of Zubydah 's interrogators , former FBI special agent Ali Soufan , told a Senate hearing in May that waterboarding him was unnecessary . Any useful information interrogators got from him either was or could have been produced without `` enhanced '' techniques , he said . Soufan said Zubaydah stopped talking after CIA contractors took over and began using harsh techniques , which he testified were `` ineffective , slow and unreliable , and harmful to our efforts to defeat al Qaeda . '' Zubaydah was subjected to waterboarding 83 times in August 2002 , according to Bush administration documents released in April ; Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times in March 2003 , according to the documents . U.S. authorities prosecuted Japanese officers who used waterboarding against American prisoners in World War II . But Bush administration lawyers argued the tactic did not violate U.S. laws against torture as long as interrogators had no intent to cause `` severe pain . '' Cheney said in May that the interrogations were used only on `` hardened terrorists '' after other efforts failed -- and `` in a few cases , that information could be gained only through tough interrogations . '' And there was also time pressure , the U.S. official with knowledge of the interrogation program told CNN . `` Time was deemed to be of essence . There was fear of a pending attack '' in the aftermath of the September 11 , 2001 , terror attacks . `` Could you have gotten the information some other way ? We 'll never know , '' said Peter Bergen , CNN terrorism analyst , who doubts the information divulged after waterboarding saved American lives . `` Did it really avert imminent terrorist attacks , according to these documents ? No , '' he said . `` Khalid Sheikh Mohammed certainly revealed a lot of information after being waterboarded ... but it turns out these plots were just talk . '' But Cheney said enhanced interrogations contributed to most of the successful arrests of al Qaeda members . `` I think they were directly responsible for the fact that for eight years we had no further mass casualty attacks against the United States , '' he said Sunday . CNN 's Pam Benson and Brian Todd contributed to this report .
Cheney says reports support claim that enhanced interrogation produced critical info . Dossiers declassified this week do not specify techniques used to elicit intelligence . Reports surface in debate over whether techniques helped prevent terrorist attacks . Former VP says enhanced interrogations contributed to successful al Qaeda arrests .