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Cheney Says Obama Should Keep Terror Policies
WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney said Wednesday it would be a mistake for President-elect Barack Obama to scrap the Bush administration's terrorist-fighting policies designed to prevent future attacks on the U.S.
"It would be a tragedy if they threw over those policies simply because they had campaigned against them," Cheney said in an interview with CBS Radio's Mark Knoller. "I think they need to proceed very cautiously before they begin to change the policies that are in place. They need to know what they're doing."
Obama has criticized practices that he says amount to torturing detainees during interrogations and has promised to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
"He was rather critical during the campaign of some of the policies we pursued, for example, in terms of terrorist surveillance or interrogation of terrorist prisoners," Cheney said.
"If I had advice to give it would be, before you start to implement your campaign rhetoric you need to sit down and find out precisely what it is we did and how we did it, because it is going to be vital to keeping the nation safe and secure in the years ahead."
The Terrorist Surveillance Program was secretly authorized by Bush shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and was disclosed in late 2005, sparking questions about its legality. The Bush administration vigorously defended the program as essential to national security, but brought it under the purview of the federal Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which requires investigators to obtain a warrant from a secret court in Washington to eavesdrop on suspected terrorists inside the country.
In the wide-ranging, 20-minute interview in his West Wing office, Cheney also debunked his public persona as someone who worked behind the scenes controlling the levers of the Bush presidency.
"The notion that somehow I was pulling strings or making presidential-level decisions. I was not," he said. "There was never any question about who was in charge. It was George Bush. And that's the way we operated. This whole notion that somehow I exceeded my authority here, was usurping his authority, is simply not true. It's an urban legend, never happened.
Cheney also said the financial rescue plan was essential to keeping the finance system functioning. He said that he viewed the automobile bailout as a "stopgap" and that the industry will have to find a way to become a viable industry again. And he said that while the Republican Party currently is in a "trough," he was not worried about the future of the party.
Asked to identify the biggest misimpression people have about him, Cheney laughed and said, tongue-in-cheek: "That I'm actually a warm, lovable sort."
Cheney said he wasn't troubled by the fact that there were some people who felt hatred for him.
"It goes with the turf," he said. "No, we got elected in one of the closest elections in American history in 2000. Some people never got over that. And then I've had to, in my capacity as vice president, be actively involved in some very tough decisions that some people find controversial."
- Posted in
73 Comments so far
Show AllI haven't read this yet but just the title cracks me up!
I hope I am not disappointed.
Cheney is establishing himself as the public spokesperson for American fascism--as loveable as a viper and a congenital liar.
So "Dick" Cheney isn't troubled by the fact that some people hate him. Sounds like a man with no conscience to me. Sociopaths are not troubled at all by what people think of their murderous ways. Now Cheney is one guy who can look at a mirror, walk away, and truly say "I just looked at a dick."
Dicky reminds me of one of our local nutballs who was caught with the dead body of a prosititute in his truck, same kinda cocky grin.
Cheney has some serious character disorders. If he wasn't so dangerous, I would feel pity for him.
OK it is Classic Cheney... He still cracks me up!
For all his torture he still hasn't found if Bin Laden is dead or alive or what happened to the trillions lost by the pentagon but Obama should not stop all that good stuff.
Dear Richard,
Yes, I can find love for you. But that love recognizes you with pity as a very sick person. When our repeated behaviors reach such an extent as to cause physical distortion, such as the deformity of your cigar smoking mouth, or is it a pipe?, then, clinically, one has reached the level of psychosis. Please do not take this as a message of hate, but as a call for human recognition - that being, you are a sick person whose position makes you very dangerous to the living world. Please check yourself into the nearest psychiatric ward. You would be doing yourself and the rest of humanity a great service.
Your Friend,
Puck
Yes, Cheesedick Cheney speaks out of the left side of his mouth (not the right side) and tends to drop his chin onto his chest. David Addington has mentioned this to him many, many times and The Cheesedick now realizes that if he is to command large, top dog speaking fees on the rubber chicken circuit, he has to stop resembling and sounding like a child molester. He will undergo surgery so he speaks with his whole mouth and will have a version of Tommy John surgery on his neck to keep his head up while he verbalizes. BTW, this will be done at taxpayers' expense.
You want him to lie out of both sides of his mouth???
(sorry obscure canadian joke...)
Hilarious dude!
When are you gonna publish a book of rants?
I recommend a 365 daily calendar...
Cheney really doesn't care if we love him or not. In his mind he is lovable and that is all that matters. The man who molested my husband when he was a youth had exactly the same mindset. And the same twisted mouth (cigars in his case). They are truly sociopaths.
The Republican party is in the "trough," his first honest words. A trough being what animals stick their snouts in and feed out of.
The guy likes to shoot birds released from a cage.
What do you expect, Mr. compassionate thinker?
Hunters usually have something missing upstairs.
Some do a 180 like Tolstoy, but not many I bet.
But canned hunting is especially egregious.
Bill Richardson does it.
Even some so called left writers like Robert Bryce defend it(he was buddies with the ahole lawyer that Cheney shot and unfortunately didnt kill--and they were out on a canned hunt at the time).
BTW
what does a trough have to do with human beings?
A trough is found on a farm(aka animal slave prison).
You dont have them in the wild.
And even domesticated animals are far more civilized than humans.
If its an attempt to insult Cheney-try using the biggest insult of all: human.
He's human all too human.
Webber wrote:
even domesticated animals are far more civilized than humans.
COMMENT:
I am unaware of any wild animals that, with a sufficient supply of food in front of them, will go searching afar in packs for their own kind to kill for even more food they don't need.
Therefore, I conclude that even the most wild of wild animals are far more civilized than humans.
Nature has always provided a wonderful respite and powerful healing energy to those humans willing to convene, learn from and connect to ( ALL that IS ).
The further humans stray from NATURE, the further they fall into hubris, dishonesty, hatred, fear, manipulation, and imbalance.
My Word -- and NATURE is even FREE !
Namaste
Cheaney isn't a hunter. I've hunted, didn't want to eat what I was going to kill so somehow I kept on missing bambi...
I know hunters, and not one of them would hunt in a cage. None of them would think shooting birds who've just been released from a cage, or shooting animals when they're in a big cage, is hunting.
Dicky is a shooter. He has no respect for any lifeforms.
Hunters respect what they kill, it feeds them through the year and especially thru the winter. A hunter will want his children to have the opportunity to eat what he's eaten, shooters just like shooting at things.
"Hunters usually have something missing upstairs."
You don't know any hunters do you. Most hunters are decent everyday people and only shoot what their going to eat.
Rickster
Webber . . . are you a vegetarian or vegan. I have been vegetarian for over six years and am ni the process of going completely vegan.
It would be cool to know of someone else on this board who is, as well.
Cheers.
Ursa
Maybe when the Dicks out of office he can play the penguin in the Next Batman - Dark knight 2. He could at least stay in character
Say goodbye L'il Dick...goodbye and good riddance.
"...I'm actually a warm, lovable sort." -Dick Waterboard Cheney
COMMENT:
Defending torture at the same time he is calling himself warm and lovable should reveal the man as the sociopathological psychopath he is to even extreme right-wing Republicans, and certainly the Christian right – that is, of course, those that aren't themselves psychopaths.
"and certainly the Christian right"
Their patting him on the back.
Rickster
Cheney says, "If I had advice to give it would be, before you start to implement your campaign rhetoric you need to sit down and find out precisely what it is we did and how we did it..."
As per your request, bring it on. Sounds like the perfect recipe for indictment.
Of course we can't just forget about "terrorism." Especially after these two have created so many terrorists. But we sure don't need the bloated military and we don't need to blow up countries and innocent citizens trying to hit a few terrorists.
Hungry sharks find him lovely too.
"I think they need to proceed very cautiously before they begin to change the policies that are in place. They need to know what they're doing." - Cheesedick Cheney
Like you knew what you were doing? No, but you're right; shit is "warm and loveable" . . . if you're a coprophiliac . . . which I suspect you are, among numerous other things too nasty to be mentioned here.
Why didn't Cheney and Bush keep us secure on 9/11 after Clarke, Clinton, Gore and others told them about the impending attack?
Because they were actively planning the attacks.
Rickster
Cheney has no future in comedy.
I don't know about that. Have you ever been curious enough to watch the Jerry Springer Show. I think he would fit right in.
Rickster
"There was never any question about who was in charge. It was George Bush. And that's the way we operated. This whole notion that somehow I exceeded my authority here, was usurping his authority, is simply not true. It's an urban legend, never happened."
Is Dick practicing his defence - just in the [unlikely] case he is charged with crimes against humanity?
It's like Edgar Bergen blaming Charlie MCCarthy for using bad language.
What an ugly, evil man.
I agree with "Judah". It cannot be put more simply "what an ugly evil man".
After all the atrocities at GITMO, the surveillance, the Crimes against Humanity, the WAR, the terror in this country, not showing up to sign the ban on cluster bombs, and on and on and on. Cheney "loveable" that makes me sick!
This is nothing but B. S. from the most evil, full of S--- man on earth. Trial for crimes against humanity is waiting.
Kitty Lady
"It would be a tragedy if they threw over those policies simply because they had campaigned against them."
Holy hell, that's messed up. He's essentially saying that American representative politics are a sham. Which comes as no surprise to me, either from the fact of the matter or Cheney's attitude about it, but it's still surprising to hear a politician so blatantly say it.
Indeed. Cheney's first sentence quoted in the interview is the most revealing. Read it again, slowly.
There will be no trial of crimes against humanity. The only justice will come is that special place in hell for people like him.
well f**k myself and shoot me in the face! Dick Cheney really is lovable after all!
"well f**k myself and shoot me in the face".
Slow down there cowboy, that's Dick's prerogative.
This man is an ignorant bag of stinking gas. When his lease on life is up, we should declare that day one of great celebration and joy. His passing will mean that one of the darkest souls ever to take human form has moved on, hopefully to a very long stay in that realm where tormented souls gather to weep and moan over their most recent incarnation.
Buried in a tomato juice can my back yard is several hundred dollars which I will expend buying drinks for friends to celebrate the death of Cheesedick Cheney and/or George Wanker Bush, whichever comes first. We're just waiting for the day. You cannot speak ill of the dead if they were dead while supposedly still alive. Bush and Cheney were born dead and have remained incarnations of spiritual and intellectual Death while still walking around.
If they fail to reverse Bush and Cheneys'policies,wouldn't that make the Bush legacy not near as bad as what we thought the people in the future would think of them?Damn if you do,damn if..
Republicans will not consider the possibility that they may be mistaken.
Democrats are so full of self doubt they can't make a decision.
I dreamed last of some guy telling me,they're starting it all over.Before I could ask what,a large rusty Nazi submarine came down the canal and he was on a plank boarding her.To me it was a picture that was worth a thousand words.
The pathetic schmuck calls himself lovable because no one else could.
Interesting that he also denies his influence and power within that administration. Makes you wonder why he hid himself so much of the time, and why little Georgie spent so much time on the ranch clearing brush. Might do Georgie some good to try manual labor for a while, say, the rest of his life, as long as it's simple stuff like raking and digging ditches.
Isn't it amazing that the media give these assholes such a pass? They ruined the entire world and the media defer to them as if they were the nicest guys on the planet.
Sick shit.
Bit of a cheeky fellow
Of course Obama will do to Bush/Cheney what Clinton did to Reagan/Bush. He won't hold them accountable. Besides, Cheney can keep laughing his ribs out now that we've got more of a go-along-get-along with the GOP Congress and a Clinton Version 2.0 in the White House.
He's been chief bogeyman for so long, he just can't give it up. This interview is a set-up for an I-told-you-so in the making (or making up). Remember, he wants everyone to be frightened, intimidated, or distracted. Inventing lies and dispensing fear is his M.O.; war profiteering his game.
Sad to say, after almost forty years spent more or less in proximity to the cold heart of American power, Dick is unlikely to face investigation, trial or conviction unless a foreign power can acquire him and get him to the Hague. It's a fond hope but an unlikely prospect.
"unless a foreign power can acquire him and get him to the Hague."
You never know, on one of his visits to his friends in Saudi Arabia his plane might get diverted to one of them foreign powers. We can always hope.
Rickster
Ted Hayes
Asked to identify the biggest misimpression people have about him, Cheney laughed and said, tongue-in-cheek: "That I'm actually a warm, lovable sort."
If he is so lovable, why is it I can't stand the man?