http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0809/26587.html
All,
Enough already with this contemptible bullying creep! There's no two ways about it folks: Obama is going to have to find the GUTS, INTEGRITY, AND INDEPENDENCE to tell this notorious war criminal and first class political cretin TO GO STRAIGHT TO HELL (Cheney's favorite habitat) or suffer the dire consequences (and we're the ones who will suffer the most as always). Cheney is nothing but an arrogant authoritarian prick and serious national menace and what he and the rest of the gangbanging Bushwhackers did with their draconian and blatantly unconstitutional, illegal and immoral torture, rendition, and detention policies is nothing short of treason. The real question before us all then is whether Obama's administration is going to actually enforce the law when it comes to the criminals from this country's political and economic elites. So far the President has been nothing but a cringing, passive chump in the face of Cheney's vicious streetcorner signifying and if Obama, Holder, and the rest of his team is ever to receive the kind of genuine respect and support from those of us who voted for him he's got to be a real leader of integrity and vision who demands and deserves it on the basis of what he actually does and not on meaningless celebrity 'style points'. We're all way past the "congratulations brother!" stage of our relationship with our new President and I sincerely hope Barack fully understands that. We're not his frontline syncophants after all, WE'RE CITIZENS. As I've said from day one of his inauguration I deeply want President Obama to succeed as a genuine political and economic reform leader (and I still do) but not at our collective expense, and standing up to and vigorously opposing vile reactionary gangsters like Dick Cheney and everything he and his moronic minions and defenders stand for is an absolute prerequisite in that respect. Anything less is absolute failure and I for one have no intention of settling for that...
Kofi
Cheney digs in
By: Carol E. Lee
August 30, 2009
Politico
Former Vice President Dick Cheney delivered another harsh rebuke of the Obama administration, calling the Justice Department’s new investigation into whether CIA interrogators broke the law "an outrageous political act” and questioning Barack Obama’s ability to lead the country.
“I wasn’t a fan of his when he got elected, and my views haven’t changed any,” Cheney said in an interview that aired on Fox News Sunday. “I have serious doubts about his policies, serious doubts especially about the extent to which he understands and is prepared to do what needs to be done to defend the nation.”
While Cheney has been uncharacteristically vocal since leaving office in January, this was his first interview since Attorney General Eric Holder announced an investigation into interrogations carried out by CIA personnel during the Bush administration.
He said the investigation is “an outrageous precedent to set” and will have consequences for the country’s national security.
“It’s clearly a political move,” Cheney said. “There’s no other rationale for why they’re doing this.”
Cheney accused Obama of going back on his word not to look back and investigate enhanced interrogation techniques sanctioned by the Bush administration because he got “a little heat from the left wing of the Democratic Party.”
He dismissed the idea that Holder is acting independently and suggested Obama could have stopped the investigation.
“The president is the chief law enforcement officer in the administration,” Cheney said. “He’s now saying, well, this isn’t anything that he’s got anything to do with. He’s up on vacation at Martha’s Vineyard, and his attorney general is going back and doing something that the president said some months ago they wouldn't do.”
Asked if he will speak with investigators if they want to talk to him, Cheney said, “It’ll depend on the circumstances.”
Democrats hit back just minutes after Cheney’s interview aired. The Democratic National Committee fired off an e-mail to reporters disputing Cheney’s argument that the CIA records released last week showed the enhanced interrogation techniques under the Bush administration were effective in gathering intelligence about Al Qaeda. The e-mail, which cited various news reports, also accused the former vice president of being a “strong and vocal proponent of torture,” and pointed to polls that show “American’s don’t agree with Cheney on national security.”
Cheney’s daughter Liz was also out Sunday to defend her father and the Bush administration on CIA interrogation policies.
But her comments during a roundtable discussion on ABC’s “This Week” often sparked a spirited debate and left her and the other panelists talking over each other.
Liz Cheney, like her father, pointed out that the Justice Department had looked into the same issue five years ago.
“And this investigation has already been done,” Cheney said.
“By the Bush administration,” Sam Donaldson interjected.
“Excuse me, Sam,” host George Stephanopoulos jumped in.
At one point, the exchanges had gotten so intense as Stephanopoulos tried to move on that Gwen Ifill of PBS NewHour piped up: “Hello, George is talking.”
“You guys continue this in the green room,” Stephanopoulos quipped.
During the discussion, Liz Cheney said that “waterboarding isn’t torture,” and said that a newly declassified report by the CIA's inspector general showed that the aggressive interrogation techniques produced critically important information — a conclusion other panelists contested.
The former vice president also defended the Bush administration’s policies on enhanced interrogations in his Fox interview. He said he knew about waterboarding as a policy in general but not specific cases, and characterized it and other techniques as “absolutely essential” to saving American lives.
Cheney predicted the Justice Department investigation will deplete morale at the CIA.
“We ask those people to do some very difficult things,” he said. “Nobody’s going to sign up for those kinds of missions.”
And he mocked President Obama's creation last week of a High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group — which effectively moves control of those detainees from the CIA to the White House — calling it “silly.”
“If we had tried to do that back in the aftermath of 9/11,” he said, “we’d have gotten no place.”
© 2009 Capitol News Company, LLC
All,
Enough already with this contemptible bullying creep! There's no two ways about it folks: Obama is going to have to find the GUTS, INTEGRITY, AND INDEPENDENCE to tell this notorious war criminal and first class political cretin TO GO STRAIGHT TO HELL (Cheney's favorite habitat) or suffer the dire consequences (and we're the ones who will suffer the most as always). Cheney is nothing but an arrogant authoritarian prick and serious national menace and what he and the rest of the gangbanging Bushwhackers did with their draconian and blatantly unconstitutional, illegal and immoral torture, rendition, and detention policies is nothing short of treason. The real question before us all then is whether Obama's administration is going to actually enforce the law when it comes to the criminals from this country's political and economic elites. So far the President has been nothing but a cringing, passive chump in the face of Cheney's vicious streetcorner signifying and if Obama, Holder, and the rest of his team is ever to receive the kind of genuine respect and support from those of us who voted for him he's got to be a real leader of integrity and vision who demands and deserves it on the basis of what he actually does and not on meaningless celebrity 'style points'. We're all way past the "congratulations brother!" stage of our relationship with our new President and I sincerely hope Barack fully understands that. We're not his frontline syncophants after all, WE'RE CITIZENS. As I've said from day one of his inauguration I deeply want President Obama to succeed as a genuine political and economic reform leader (and I still do) but not at our collective expense, and standing up to and vigorously opposing vile reactionary gangsters like Dick Cheney and everything he and his moronic minions and defenders stand for is an absolute prerequisite in that respect. Anything less is absolute failure and I for one have no intention of settling for that...
Kofi
Cheney digs in
By: Carol E. Lee
August 30, 2009
Politico
Former Vice President Dick Cheney delivered another harsh rebuke of the Obama administration, calling the Justice Department’s new investigation into whether CIA interrogators broke the law "an outrageous political act” and questioning Barack Obama’s ability to lead the country.
“I wasn’t a fan of his when he got elected, and my views haven’t changed any,” Cheney said in an interview that aired on Fox News Sunday. “I have serious doubts about his policies, serious doubts especially about the extent to which he understands and is prepared to do what needs to be done to defend the nation.”
While Cheney has been uncharacteristically vocal since leaving office in January, this was his first interview since Attorney General Eric Holder announced an investigation into interrogations carried out by CIA personnel during the Bush administration.
He said the investigation is “an outrageous precedent to set” and will have consequences for the country’s national security.
“It’s clearly a political move,” Cheney said. “There’s no other rationale for why they’re doing this.”
Cheney accused Obama of going back on his word not to look back and investigate enhanced interrogation techniques sanctioned by the Bush administration because he got “a little heat from the left wing of the Democratic Party.”
He dismissed the idea that Holder is acting independently and suggested Obama could have stopped the investigation.
“The president is the chief law enforcement officer in the administration,” Cheney said. “He’s now saying, well, this isn’t anything that he’s got anything to do with. He’s up on vacation at Martha’s Vineyard, and his attorney general is going back and doing something that the president said some months ago they wouldn't do.”
Asked if he will speak with investigators if they want to talk to him, Cheney said, “It’ll depend on the circumstances.”
Democrats hit back just minutes after Cheney’s interview aired. The Democratic National Committee fired off an e-mail to reporters disputing Cheney’s argument that the CIA records released last week showed the enhanced interrogation techniques under the Bush administration were effective in gathering intelligence about Al Qaeda. The e-mail, which cited various news reports, also accused the former vice president of being a “strong and vocal proponent of torture,” and pointed to polls that show “American’s don’t agree with Cheney on national security.”
Cheney’s daughter Liz was also out Sunday to defend her father and the Bush administration on CIA interrogation policies.
But her comments during a roundtable discussion on ABC’s “This Week” often sparked a spirited debate and left her and the other panelists talking over each other.
Liz Cheney, like her father, pointed out that the Justice Department had looked into the same issue five years ago.
“And this investigation has already been done,” Cheney said.
“By the Bush administration,” Sam Donaldson interjected.
“Excuse me, Sam,” host George Stephanopoulos jumped in.
At one point, the exchanges had gotten so intense as Stephanopoulos tried to move on that Gwen Ifill of PBS NewHour piped up: “Hello, George is talking.”
“You guys continue this in the green room,” Stephanopoulos quipped.
During the discussion, Liz Cheney said that “waterboarding isn’t torture,” and said that a newly declassified report by the CIA's inspector general showed that the aggressive interrogation techniques produced critically important information — a conclusion other panelists contested.
The former vice president also defended the Bush administration’s policies on enhanced interrogations in his Fox interview. He said he knew about waterboarding as a policy in general but not specific cases, and characterized it and other techniques as “absolutely essential” to saving American lives.
Cheney predicted the Justice Department investigation will deplete morale at the CIA.
“We ask those people to do some very difficult things,” he said. “Nobody’s going to sign up for those kinds of missions.”
And he mocked President Obama's creation last week of a High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group — which effectively moves control of those detainees from the CIA to the White House — calling it “silly.”
“If we had tried to do that back in the aftermath of 9/11,” he said, “we’d have gotten no place.”
© 2009 Capitol News Company, LLC
