A long time ago (when I was 11), in a movie theater far, far away from the stadium-seating luxury of today’s multiplexes (Apple Valley in Smithfield), I saw Star Wars for the first time.

I loved it. To this day, the only tune I can play on the piano is the Star Wars theme (beats the hell out of “Greensleeves”). I can vividly recall the climactic scene when Darth Vader is about to blast Luke Skywalker, and Han Solo swoops in to save the day. I can still picture Vader, breathing heavily behind his black mask, spinning into space.

That image of the vanquished Vader has come to mind as I’ve watched Vice President Dick Cheney attempt to spin his way into the good graces of history during the final hours of President Bush’s empire. And it has come to mind as I’ve read Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency — an engrossing new book by Barton Gellman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The Washington Post.

“Cheney will be remembered in our lifetimes for steering the U.S. government to the Dark Side,” Gellman said in an e-mail interview. “He often jokes about his Darth Vader reputation, but he was the one who summoned that image on Meet the Press the first Sunday after September 11. Cheney believed in casting aside restraints against cruelty in interrogations and against domestic espionage. He believed the president’s powers are beyond the reach of Congress or courts, and ought to be. Cheney is not an opportunist. He has a dark view of human nature, and he lives in a worst-case world.”

I recently watched Star Wars again for the first time in years, and I thought of Cheney when Vader interrogated Princess Leia.

“And now, Your Highness,” Vader says in the bass tones of James Earl Jones, “we will discuss the location of your hidden rebel base.” Leia’s eyes, bracketed by that cinnamon-bun hairdo, widen as Vader brings in a floating black sphere bristling with lights, knobs — and a giant protruding needle.

Torture? Or simply some enhanced interrogation techniques? If Cheney and his lawyer, David Addington, had been aboard the Death Star, I have no doubt about what advice they’d have given Vader. Because Cheney is a pioneer, of sorts. As Gellman says, “After September 11, Cheney and his allies pioneered a distinction that the U.S. government had not claimed before. ‘Torture,’ narrowly defined, would remain out of bounds. But violent, cruel or degrading methods, the terms of art in Geneva, were perfectly lawful.”

The book details how Bush ratified a policy that Cheney had declared 10 weeks earlier in speaking to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — that the Geneva Conventions would not apply to al-Qaida or Taliban fighters captured on the battlefield.

The book details what the pioneering meant for Mohammed Qahtani, suspected of being the 12th hijacker: “Stripped naked, shaved of his beard, menaced with dogs, bound in painful positions, subjected to extremes of heat and cold.” The book notes, “These were the rudiments of Soviet-style interrogation, denounced by Ronald Reagan.” And the book details the toll on Qahtani over 49 days: “Urinated on himself … began to cry … asked God for forgiveness … broke down and cried … bit the IV tube completely in two … moaning.”

For at least a century, the government has said certain things were torture. “One of them was ‘waterboarding,’ an ordeal with roots in the Spanish Inquisition,” Gellman says. “The U.S. government held war crimes trials for those who practiced it, Americans and foreigners, beginning in 1902.” Yet “Cheney and the cabinet principals approved waterboarding for at least three men,” including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, described in the 9/11 Commission Report as “the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks.”

Gellman notes there’s debate about the reliability of information from people who are tortured. But he says, “A braver question, which not as many people wanted to address, was whether Americans were prepared to be a nation that did this sort of thing, torture or not-quite torture, if it worked. Did we feel that frightened? Did we feel that ruthless?”

In a nationalreview.com article, Cheney said, “I believed — and the president did too, obviously, because he ultimately made the decisions — that our first obligation was to do everything we could to make certain that we didn’t get hit again, that there wasn’t going to be another 9/11 on our watch.” He said, “That meant setting up things like the Terror Surveillance Program and the enhanced interrogation techniques for al-Qaida types like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.”

Cheney sniffed that the word torture “gets thrown around with great abandon.” He said, “I would do exactly what was done.” And he said, “I think it’s the only way you could do it.”

Oh really? The only way? I can’t help but think John McCain, who was tortured after being captured by the North Vietnamese, would have found a different way to keep our country safe had he been president. I can’t help but think that with a different vice president, this country would not have sneeringly cast aside the Geneva Conventions as “quaint.” And I can’t help but think a different administration would have been wise enough to avoid pursuing such questionable short-term gain at the expense of giving our enemies long-term recruiting tools such as the shameful images from Abu Ghraib prison. We need to stand up to our enemies, but certainly we can do that without sacrificing what we stand for.

I noticed Cheney felt the need to emphasize Bush made the ultimate decisions. Gellman said, “Bush really was the Decider when he wanted to be, and he said no to Cheney plenty of times. But he was much more interested in visions than details, and in lots of cases the real decision is how to match ends and means. We all want security, and Bush wanted a tough response to al-Qaida, but it was Cheney who wrote the game plan for ‘enhanced’ interrogations and warrantless domestic surveillance.”

We’re all thankful al-Qaida has not succeeded in striking us again. But to what extent is that success attributable to techniques such as waterboarding? Gellman said interrogators learned a lot from Mohammed and “we can’t rewind the tape and try it another way,” but he said Cheney can’t prove cruelty in interrogations saved lives any more than critics can prove otherwise.

Brown University graduate Michael Skerker, a visiting assistant professor in DePaul University’s religious studies department whose upcoming book is called Interrogation Ethics, said he understands the impulse leaders had to “think outside the box” after 9/11. But, he said, “Where I fault Cheney and his confederates is that instead of listening to experts who would have told them torture was ineffective, they listened to people with a comic-book understanding of torture.”

Skerker said the egotistical Mohammed was talking before he was waterboarded and some of his claims proved “very dubious.” Torture often results in short confessions, not valuable narratives, and it’s counterproductive, he said, suggesting Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay represent “the best birthday presents you could send to Osama bin Laden” as he tries to portray America as evil. Also, it is simply immoral to use force against someone in handcuffs, he said.

Like a Democratic Han Solo, U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse swooped in with a final zap last week, saying, “Vice President Cheney has been a malignant force behind the most destructive and unfettered abuse of power America has seen in a long, long time. His influence has left our international reputation damaged and undermined Americans’ trust that their government is doing the right thing. Incredibly, to this day, he still maintains that no detainees were tortured. I look forward to closing the door on this dark chapter and welcoming a new era of honesty, accountability and respect for the Constitution in our country.”

As Cheney spins out of the West Wing, I say: Barack Obama, may the force be with you.

efitzpat@projo.com