Why is this man smiling?
Former Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday again asserted that President Obama has made the country less safe, arguing that the new administration’s changes to detention and interrogation programs for suspected terrorists would hamper intelligence gathering. Mr. Cheney said these moves suggested that terrorism is now being treated as a law enforcement problem.
“He is making some choices that, in my mind, will, in fact, raise the risk to the American people of another attack,” Mr. Cheney, who was interviewed on CNN’s "State of the Union,” said about Mr. Obama.
Since taking office, President Obama has reversed many of the policies championed by Mr. Cheney during his eight years serving with George W. Bush. Mr. Obama has announced that the Guantánamo Bay detention camp in Cuba will close within the year, suspended military trials for suspected terrorists and prohibited the interrogation practice known as waterboarding. But on Sunday Mr. Cheney contended those very methods had produced intelligence — still classified — that helped uncover specific plots.
“I think those programs were absolutely essential to the success we enjoyed of being able to collect the intelligence that let us defeat all further attempts to launch attacks against the United States since 9/11,” Mr. Cheney said of Bush administration policies, echoing statements he had made in an interview last month with Web site Politico. “I think that’s a great success story. It was done legally. It was done in accordance with our constitutional practices and principles”…
Former vice president Richard B. Cheney said yesterday that he strongly disagreed with President Bush’s decision not to pardon I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, saying his former chief of staff had been left "hanging in the wind." "I think he’s an innocent man who deserves a pardon," Cheney said on CNN’s "State of the Union," in what the cable news program billed as his first television interview since leaving office in January…
…Bush commuted the prison sentence, leaving Libby, a prominent Washington lawyer for years, to face the fine and two years’ probation. In a statement at the time, Bush characterized Libby’s punishment as "harsh," calling his professional reputation "forever damaged." Cheney and other conservatives urged Bush to issue Libby a pardon, which amounts to a full exoneration. But Libby was not included in the more than two dozen that Bush handed out in December in a final round of pardons, an often controversial end-of-term tradition.
"It was one of the moments that occurred in the administration where we had fundamental difference of opinion," Cheney said in the CNN interview. "I believe firmly that Scooter was unjustly accused and prosecuted and deserved a pardon, and the president disagreed with that."
Cheney said he still speaks to Bush after having "traveled a long way together in eight years and two presidential campaigns. That built a very solid, lasting relationship." But he added: "I was clearly not happy that we, in effect, left Scooter sort of hanging in the wind, which I didn’t think was appropriate."
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"I think that’s a great success story. It was done legally. It was done in accordance with our constitutional practices and principles." Nothing about the Iraq misadventure was a success. Certainly the legality of any of this is in question, even from the Bush DoJ. And nobody, but nobody, believes it was done in accordance with our Constitution and Principles [unless you don’t include Moslems as human beings].
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"I think he’s an innocent man who deserves a pardon." That’s not what a duly constituted jury thought.
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"I believe firmly that Scooter was unjustly accused and prosecuted and deserved a pardon." He was accused and prosecuted by a Federal Prosecutor appointed by the Bush Administration in a court of law.
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"I was clearly not happy that we, in effect, left Scooter sort of hanging in the wind, which I didn’t think was appropriate." Cheney’s unhappiness is visible from 100 yards. But here we get to the essence of things. He was Cheney’s Chief of Staff doing Cheney’s bidding, and so he doesn’t want him punished. Cheney is as much as saying that Scooter should be pardoned because he was just doing what Cheney told him to do, and was covering up for Cheney.
The Peter Principle is the principle that "In a Hierarchy Every Employee Tends to Rise to His Level of Incompetence." While formulated by Dr. Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull in their 1968 book The Peter Principle, a humorous treatise which also introduced the "salutary science of Hierarchiology", "inadvertently founded" by Peter, the principle has real validity. It holds that in a hierarchy, members are promoted so long as they work competently. Sooner or later they are promoted to a position at which they are no longer competent [their "level of incompetence"], and there they remain. Peter’s Corollary states that "in time, every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out his duties" and adds that "work is accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence".
"But on Sunday Mr. Cheney contended those very methods had produced intelligence — still classified — that helped uncover specific plots." Here, Cheney is trying to look at outcome, at least in an "ends justify the means" way – not what I meant by outcome. But even in his way of looking at things, what he says is highly suspect. If "those very methods had produced intelligence," they wouldn’t still be "still classified." Bush and Cheney were consistent with classification. They classified what they didn’t want us to know. And they declassified what they did want us to know. So, if it’s still classified, it didn’t produce intelligence.
Pardoning Scooter is the same deal. In the last example, Cheney claims "It was done legally. It was done in accordance with our constitutional practices and principles." Yet with Scooter who was protected by our Constitution maximally, Cheney’s not so hot on the legal system. How come, you ask? Because it didn’t reach the conclusion Cheney wanted it to reach. Cheney-think starts with the desired conclusion, and fits the logic in later. We all try to do that, but most of us don’t think we can get away with it…
He may be “just a sick old man and doesn’t know any better,” but in fact he was essentially the most powerful man in the world for 8 years. And he did enormous harm to our nation and to the world. He should never have been given that power.
And we certainly shouldn’t allow him to keep a shred of power now — I say declassify every thing with his fingerprints on it. Create a commission cleared to view it all and, even if they can’t reveal the details, give them the power to say whether he was right or wrong.
A friend of mine said she’s just waiting for the headline, “Cheney yells at neighbor kids, ‘GET OFF MY LAWN.'” I’m glad to see him turn into the bitter old man with no power. Now, let’s find out all the dirty deeds and prosecute him!
“He should never have been given that power” and he wasn’t. He took it. That’s why I am leaning towards Smoochie’s conclusion with Cheney [“Now, let’s find out all the dirty deeds and prosecute him!”] and “declassify(ing) every thing with his fingerprints on it” in the process…
Cnn which is probably the biggest cable network in the world gave him a platform to spread his nasty venom like a poisonous snake( I envision a satan type). How can it be that Cheney with practically zero approval rating with no authority is still giving interviews. He slyly picks his interviewer to his brand of interview. Just once, I’d like a network to switch the host of a news show to someone who actually asks questions and follows up when Cheney lies to our faces. The only people who dare to call him what he is a liar and have gotten a chance to do that are ordinary citizens who are charged with assault and harassment by secret service agents and when these people go to court the charges are dropped. I want Cheney charged with murder, torturing, treason, outing a covert CIA agent and trampling on our laws. and oh before I forget lying us into a war and killing thousands of innocent people. Why is this guy still being giving the power to play by his rules? John King should be ashamed of himself for being played for a Cheney fool.
I just read that Arrianna Huffington said that Jon Stewart instead of John King would have been a better choice to interview Cheney. She’s right. It would have to be a fake newsman from a comedy show. How sad that we don’t have a real newsman to interview the dark one. I like what the White House press secretary said about CNN interviewing Cheney because Rush wasn’t available.