1boringoldman’s broken record…

Posted on Saturday 5 September 2009


Cheney’s Tortured Logic
He wants to redefine the Constitution.
Newsweek

by Jonathan Alter
September 4, 2009

Dick Cheney is in retirement, a cable nuisance but not a political threat to President Obama—unless there’s another terrorist attack. In that case, Cheney will no doubt cast himself as a sagebrush prophet whose vicious slurs against the president [he’s "soft" and not protecting America] were vindicated by events. Unless Obama can go seven and a half years without some kind of attack, he’ll need a more muscular way to rebut the former vice president’s calumnies. The U.S. is using pilotless drones [soon to outnumber aircraft in the Air Force] to kill as many Qaeda operatives as possible. If Obama whacks Osama, will Cheney finally shut up?

Probably not, for this is a man who is attempting to do more than win a historical argument and poison any potential jury pool. He’s seeking nothing less than a redefinition of the Constitution and the rule of law. The stakes are high. If the Cheney view prevails, it will give comfort to human-rights abusers everywhere, help terrorist recruitment, harm U.S. foreign policy, and set back the prosecution of terrorists by giving defense attorneys more grounds on which to get their clients acquitted.

Two words jumped out at me from Cheney’s Fox News interview last week. Chris Wallace asked, "So even in those cases where they [CIA interrogators] went beyond the specific legal authorization, you’re OK with it?" Cheney answered, "I am." That unadorned "I am" was terrifying. Cheney was saying that certain ends justify criminal means. This is a deeply antidemocratic and authoritarian notion. Why even create his bogus legal authorization for "enhanced interrogation techniques" [a way to get around U.S. laws banning torture] if it could be disregarded without consequence?

Even if torture worked, it wouldn’t be justified. And it’s not clear that it does. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11, apparently provided some useful information about that plot after he was waterboarded. According to The Washington Post, he also fingered as many as 70 other terrorists. But KSM, like anyone being tortured, lied to stop the pain. Following bogus leads from tortured detainees wastes precious time, as many interrogators have testified. The recently declassified Justice Department memos include a 2004 report from the CIA inspector general that found no conclusive proof that any specific "imminent" threats had been thwarted by information gleaned from waterboarding and other forms of torture. Cheney’s claim that torture was "absolutely essential" in saving thousands of American lives is unproven. And if there was proof, don’t you think he would do everything he could to publicize it?…
At least the Mainstream Media is staying rational. Earlier in the New York Times, now in Newsweek, the unambiguous message is that Cheney is full of it – and it’s true. I don’t keep up with the right wing media, but if there was an outpouring of support for Cheney after the Wallace Interview, I didn’t hear about it. Andrew Sullivan wins the best line about the Chris Wallace Fox News interview with Cheney, "When it comes to Cheney, one of the most incompetent vice-presidents in the country’s history, with a record of two grotesquely botched wars, war crimes and a crippling debt, Chris Wallace sounds like a teenage girl interviewing the Jonas Brothers." Maybe if the Mainstream Media keeps it up, I can move on to another topic. Right now, I seem stuck on this like there’s nothing else happening in the world.

And from a letter in the LA Times, "Like many has-beens, Dick Cheney struggles to remain relevant, not accepting that he has become an anachronism. Yet it is beyond me why President Obama — and the media — continue to engage him. As G.K. Chesterton noted, even a poor shot is dignified when he accepts a duel. Or to put it in less elegant terms, never argue with a fool — people might not know the difference"…

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