Monday
Jun012009
Cheney Won’t Budge On National Security
Monday, June 1, 2009 at 6:26PM
By Celia Canon- Talk Radio News Service
Former Vice President Dick Cheney reiterated his support for the Bush administration’s national security approach today during an address to the Gerald Ford Foundation's annual journalism awards ceremony at the National Press Club.
When questioned about President Barack Obama’s decision to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility by the end of the year, Cheney said that the administration had erred by ordering to discontinue use of the facility without a plan for the distribution of the prisoners.
“If you don’t have a place to hold these people, the only other solution is to kill them, and we don’t operate that way. We capture people in combat, we hold them as prisoners, we treat them as prisoners of war and are to be held till the end of the conflict,” Cheney said.
Since January, Obama has signed two presidential orders to close the facility within a year.
Cheney recently asked Obama to declassify the CIA’s interrogation documents related to water-boarding so as to prove that the Bush administration was not responsible for what is considered as the widespread condoning of torture by U.S. government officials under the Bush administration.
“[Obama] could with the stroke of a pen, declassify those documents that I’ve asked for,” Cheney said, adding,“The president has the authority to declassify whatever he wants, he is the ultimate classification authority of the federal government.”
When asked if he still believed there was a link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida, “The fact that he was a state sponsor of terror, provided sanctuary and safe harbor and resources to terrorists is I think without question, a fact,” adding, “That’s not something I made up. That’s not something I thought of. That’s something the director of Central Intelligence was telling us,” Cheney answered.
Since leaving office in January, Cheney has emerged as a frequent critic of Obama’s national security policies. He accused Obama of making the U.S. less safe during a CNN appearance in March and then again during a speech to the American Enterprise Institute late May. He has also given numerous television interviews conveying the same theme.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney reiterated his support for the Bush administration’s national security approach today during an address to the Gerald Ford Foundation's annual journalism awards ceremony at the National Press Club.
When questioned about President Barack Obama’s decision to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility by the end of the year, Cheney said that the administration had erred by ordering to discontinue use of the facility without a plan for the distribution of the prisoners.
“If you don’t have a place to hold these people, the only other solution is to kill them, and we don’t operate that way. We capture people in combat, we hold them as prisoners, we treat them as prisoners of war and are to be held till the end of the conflict,” Cheney said.
Since January, Obama has signed two presidential orders to close the facility within a year.
Cheney recently asked Obama to declassify the CIA’s interrogation documents related to water-boarding so as to prove that the Bush administration was not responsible for what is considered as the widespread condoning of torture by U.S. government officials under the Bush administration.
“[Obama] could with the stroke of a pen, declassify those documents that I’ve asked for,” Cheney said, adding,“The president has the authority to declassify whatever he wants, he is the ultimate classification authority of the federal government.”
When asked if he still believed there was a link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida, “The fact that he was a state sponsor of terror, provided sanctuary and safe harbor and resources to terrorists is I think without question, a fact,” adding, “That’s not something I made up. That’s not something I thought of. That’s something the director of Central Intelligence was telling us,” Cheney answered.
Since leaving office in January, Cheney has emerged as a frequent critic of Obama’s national security policies. He accused Obama of making the U.S. less safe during a CNN appearance in March and then again during a speech to the American Enterprise Institute late May. He has also given numerous television interviews conveying the same theme.
Reader Comments (1)
Gee, Vice-Chickenhawk Adolph Cheney is a strong believer that water-boarding is acceptable, and the United States should ignore the Geneva Convention. We should not blame him. He did not serve in the military because "had other priorities than military service". As a typical infantryman that volunteered during the Viet Nam War, I remember the escape and evasion training at Ft. Ord. I was not captured, but +/- seven were “captured”, and interrogated. All of “POW’s” told the “interrogators” what they were instructed not reveal. I assume that Dick Cheney is superior to the average infantryman. After all, he did not have to reveal that he had been drinking when he shot his friend in the face.
In 1947, the United States charged a Japanese officer, Yukio Asano, with war crimes for carrying out waterboarding on a U.S. civilian. The subject was strapped on a stretcher that was tilted so that his feet were in the air and head near the floor, and small amounts of water were poured over his face, leaving him gasping for air until he agreed to talk". Asano was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.
Why would Dick Cheney put American soldiers at risk for War Crimes?
Cheney said the controversial policy of simulating drowning grew out of a CIA request for guidance on "what can you do that's appropriate and what you can do that's not appropriate." Vice-Coward Dick Cheney must realize that this statement I an act of mendacity. Why would the experienced and trained interrogators from the intelligence agencies ask Dick Cheney for advice? Perhaps he should study Skinner and Rogers and resolve aversive conditioning and positive reinforcement, and how these psychological approaches work in interrogation.