Cheney takes on Obama – again
Dick Cheney continues to take on President Obama. President George W. Bush does not criticize his successor at all, but the former vice president refuses to remain silent every time the new administration does something he considers wrong.
Case in point, in an interview with Sean Hannity Cheney said:
“One of the things that I find a little bit disturbing about this recent disclosure is they put out the legal memos, the memos that the CIA got from the Office of Legal Counsel, but they didn’t put out the memos that showed the success of the effort. And there are reports that show specifically what we gained as a result of this activity. They have not been declassified.”
“I formally asked that they be declassified now. I haven’t announced this up until now, I haven’t talked about it, but I know specifically of reports that I read, that I saw that lay out what we learned through the interrogation process and what the consequences were for the country.”
“And I’ve now formally asked the CIA to take steps to declassify those memos so we can lay them out there and the American people have a chance to see what we obtained and what we learned and how good the intelligence was, as well as to see this debate over the legal opinions.”
He has a good point, of course. Obama et al. are releasing certain secret memos. Once that make them look good, and which cast the previous administration in a bad light. When they do, Cheney is right to fire back.
However, Cheney should not forget that most of us who believe that waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation techniques constitute torture are not very interested in the “positive results” they produced. Torture may sometimes result in important information, but that does not make it right. A nation loses its soul and innocence when it allows its government to torture suspects, no matter how evil these suspects are.
And that is, I fear, something Cheney will never understand. For him, this is a matter of pragmatism. If waterboarding an individual pays off, he has no problem with it. In fact, he even encourages it. But many of us do not.
Cheney’s making the case for a Truth Commission. I’m not sure he really wants to go there. Thing is, I don’t think he’d be so vocal about it if he thought there was any chance of Obama doing other than “moving on”.
Regards, Steve
Well said. Those upset with torture aren’t primarily using the arguments that the “extracted” “intelligence” is sub-par or that the results can’t even out the cons. You can’t rationalize or justify an act that is qualitatively immoral with quantitative argumentation.
More mind-reading! More leftist super-heroes! You guyz are so awesom3z!
More senseless, contentless snark! You’re such a super-jerk!
“He was criticizing the policy, not the president”
As Card said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe…attacking Obama would be a question of “taking personal shots” one can criticize the policies without criticizing the man. It was said that Obama should have listened a little more intently to the CIA directors.
We have heard over and over again for Obama that the Bush-Cheney approach to terrorism became an “advertistment for anti-American sentiment.”
The policies — not the men? Sounds like My President and his team get a score of “needs improvement” in that area.
Oh btw, Greg Sargent is calling “lie” on Cheney’s claim to have formally asked for the release of documents.
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/torture/cheney-spox-refuses-to-explain-his-formal-request-for-cia-torture-intel/