Dick Cheney challenges the CIA to declassify intelligence on torture
By John Amato Tuesday Apr 21, 2009 9:00am
Dick Cheney just can't keep out of the spotlight. He can't do it. Implementing torture and attacking Iraq for no good reason just wasn't enough for him. He has to keep coming back for more. The man with the lowest approval ratings since the Nixon era now thinks he has to attack President Obama as soon as he sits in the Oval office and he does it the cowardly way. With Sean Hannity. He goes after President Obama because he has denounced torture and released the CIA memos. That means Darth Cheney has to defend his own treacherous policy along with the implementation of it.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney last month formally asked the Central Intelligence Agency to de-classify top secret documents he believes show harsh interrogation techniques such as waterboarding helped prevent terrorist attacks against U.S. targets, according to source familiar with the effort.
On Monday, Cheney disclosed the request to Sean Hannity of Fox News' "Hannity." The request was made in late March, before President Barack Obama unsealed top-secret memos about past interrogation techniques last week...
“The facts of the case are that the use of these techniques against these terrorists made us safer. It really did work,” he told Fox News Sunday.
“I formally asked that they be declassified now. I haven't announced this up till 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.”
Joe Gandleman has a good take on Cheney and Gingrich.
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The man does have a taste for foot salad, doesn't he?
He's got the cheese between his toes.
rrrrrrrgh!
as one of our C&L Bretheren pointed out to me on a recent thread - Cheney says
aarrrgh and Pirates say arrr.
In any event I challenge Dick Cheney to meet me at the bicycle rack after school so I can teach him a lesson in civility and safe logic.
Oh...and.....uh... to tell him to just STFU!!!!
Cheney and Hannity in a room together. Oh, if only lightning would strike twice...
If they're close enough together, just one lightning strike would be enough....
on Obama LOL
authoritarian thug realize when he was wheeled off the inaugural platform that no one has to listen to him snarl anymore?
he would have nothing left to do.
the more determined they become to continue to get in peoples faces and screw things up.
There he goes again. Cheney claiming there's secret stuff to justify his criminal actions that no one but he knows about.
Frankly, when he says "we got intelligence from a detainee" I think he means "we removed the ability to think from this detainee and rendered him useless if released, which we won't do because we want you to be scared of these people".
No, what he means by "we got intelligence from a detainee" is that "we waterboarded the guy enough times that he finally started saying the things that we wanted to hear but we're going to completely ignore the hours and hours that he spent trying to explain to us that he has no idea who or what we're talking about."
Seriously, I want that pie hole to flap (mixed metaphors I realize) as much as possible.
This is not good for Republicans nor a threat to Obama.
Declassifying documents on a political whim was y'all's doing
Like with Valierie Plame.
Y'all wouldn't even declassify the documents enough, even under seal, so suspects could arrange a defense.
Do you still believe the're a link between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein?
Do you still believe there were WMD's?
So why didn't you release them to the 9-11 Committee when they essentially told you to put up or shut up.
before they get a chance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9R5dk0JY2xc
Torture may have "worked" as a way to intimidate and control the Iraqi population, indeed, the entire World's population. Revealing that Bush could order anyone in the world to be kidnapped and hidden away forever may have silenced quite a few people. I know it made me uneasy, especially as my Resident Alien husband works in cyber-security.
Well, I do hope the CIA and Obama take the Cheney-Challenge. Truth is scary. "The wheels of Justice grind slowly, but exceedingly small" (I wish!)
Cheney did NOT really ask the CIA to release any docs.
Did Dick Cheney really “formally” ask the CIA to release reams of intelligence allegedly showing that the torture program worked, as Cheney claimed last night on Fox News?
An intelligence source familiar with the situation says the answer is No.
“The agency has received no request from the former Vice President to release this information,” the source told me a few moments ago.
are not talking to no Greg Sargant.
Update: A Cheney spokesperson is refusing to say what he meant when he claimed to have made a “formal” request for this info.
does not qualify as an update of any thing any more any where under any circumstances.
come to think of it, I think we're seeing way more of Cheney now than when he was in office.
now stores bacteria and a butterfly cocoonery for the Obama's organic garden. He would stay out of the sun otherwise.
You'll see it later, maybe, don't want post an off topic.
Surprised Dick-Head Cheney didn't order this intelligence destroyed too just like their emails.
hannity tries to frame this as keeping something/ not telling the whole story. thanks john for exposing this fox propaganda.
Obama as president declassifies legal memos and it makes america less safe, but this unemployed asshat is asking the CIA to declassify shit?
That pure bush admin reasoning right there.
but he's no fool. Having publicly announced he is seeking publication of documents that don't exist he will now be able to blame the Obama administration for perversely withholding the non-existent information that supports his position. Nobody out-dicks Dick.
Prove it dick head. Were you there? Did you hear the info?...I somehow don't care what you ever have to say.
Call Dick-Heads bluff and arrest the asshole liar.
I believe Mr. Amato is trying to give me an ulcer.
To see a monster criminal get away(so far) with so much, and in addition watching him on television telling even more lies is extremely repulsive.
What?!?!?!? Now he wants to release this data? When he and Dubya were in office everything under the sun was a national security secret but now he wants to declassify these reports just so he'll feel vindicated?
LEAST LIKELY:
1. Obama declassifies the material and there is substantive proof that actionable intelligence was obtained through waterboarding. Cheney and Bush are lauded as heroes who really knew what they were doing.
MORE LIKELY:
2. Obama declassifies the material and there is no proof whatsoever that actionable intelligence was obtained through waterboarding. Cheney, Bush, and shills like Hannity continue on with their 'Obama is making us less safe' bitchfest.
MOST LIKELY:
3. Obama declines to declassify the material on the very sensible grounds that it pertains to national security and intelligence matters. Cheney then claims that the
absence of proofrefusal to declassify the materials is, in fact, proof that Bush Administration policies were effective and valid.A further point to consider is that this is the classic schoolyard bully - Cheney is daring Obama to prove something that he has no need to prove. This is highlighted by the fact that, prior to this, Cheney himself was one of the strongest advocates of secrecy - even talking about such things would cede information to the terrorists.
I rank not giving seed information to terrorists right up there with not feeding trolls. I'd rather shakle hands with Hannity in a display of weakness.
just make sure you wash up before you come into contact with food or people.
my spelling hands go free.
Dog Dare Ya
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFu7SjF7Hfg
international treaty agreed to investigate all credible claims of torture. The nattering about whether it was effective or not effective is completely irrelevant. It is illegal, and that ain't just a sick bird.
UN CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
Cheney is trying to shift the focus from the crimes that he and Shrub committed and muddying the waters to make the issue about whether they were "effective."
I hope it's the beginning of the long journey towards a jail cell for you Mr. Cheney, you disgusting, puny, empty human being.
...........STFU!!!!!!! And please go away.
Torturing a suspect's child in front of them will get them to say whatever you want too. So what? This man is missing the most elementary morality.
He reveals the kind of mind that, I believe, would willingly ignore warnings of an impending terrorist attack to get political support for war, that being the greater good by his twisted logic.
The active suppression of action on pre-9/11 warnings as documented in the 9/11 commission report screams out for investigation. How about a special prosecutor for that?
Dick:
"After 9-11, the anthrax attacks and a hole in the pentagon"...
What hole?:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gU94lNCrxdY
What anthrax?
What 9-11?
gettin' a little nervous there,....DICK.
Perhaps one of his former attorneys might have the good sense to advise the Dark Lord to return to his "secure, undisclosed location" and STFU!??!?! Every time he opens his mouth, he further incriminates himself. Keep it up moran!
it's not as much fun being in Washington when you don't have a President that fondles your balls.
we could privatize Cheney's government healthcare.
I see that man or hear him talk and it makes me sick. But that image L&P is just too ............ I don't know. I don't even have the words to describe it.
For those of you who don't understand that Obama doesn't decide who gets prosecuted and who doesn't, this is for you:
Obama is in the executive branch, not the Judicial branch of government. He doesn't make those decisions. The Attorney General is responsible for that and the various district attorneys of the United States. Finally, you don't have to take my word for it. you can take it from the man himself:
OBAMA: The OLC memos that were released reflected in my view us losing our moral bearings. ... For those who carried out some of these operations within the four corners of legal opinions or guidance that had been provided from the White House, I do not think it's appropriate for them to be prosecuted. With respect to those who formulated those legal decisions, I would say that is going to be more of a decision for the Attorney General within the parameters of various laws, and I don't want to prejudge that.
There you have it. You can surf over to think progress and see the quote for yourselves. At least Obama knows how government works. Just because Bush used the AG as his personal attorney doesn't mean we have to assume that Obama will.
I don't know how many times I have told our friends here the same thing.
Rachel Maddow: Senator Whitehouse on Impeachment Of Judge Bybee
He makes precisely your point - and more. He says Obama's main concern IS "looking forward" to get the US economy out of the ditch where the Bush administration left it, but it's DOJ's job to investigate, prosecute, etc.
btw .. I've been pointing this out for several days now ;)
Senator Whitehouse also mentions an investigation by the Office of Professional Responsibility of the Dept. of Justice whose report is due within days.
Office of Professional Responsibility
... when I speak of the necessity to prosecute those responsible, I am not asking for Obama to personally drop the hammer.
As the Chief Executive, Obama nonetheless sets the tone for his administration's priorities. The 'looking to the future' happy-talk from Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod is the same horseshit that BushCo had on sale.
I was taught that:
Legislative Branch-makes the laws
Executive Branch-enforces the laws
Judicial Branch- interprets & applies the law
So I get what you mean.
not to mention that the DoJ is part of the executive...
really, if obama really wanted this to go forward he would use the power of his office to push this. he seems to be doing the exact office, he is using the power of his office to urge us to 'move on'
And what happens if the AG loses the confidence of the President?
All I've been saying is not to attribute what anybody connected with the administration says as administration policy. You are making assumptions, based only on your knowledge that what Bush said was DOJ policy in the Bush administration. That's why we hired Obama.
You can get all worked up about what that worthless Republican wanna be Rahm Emanuel says or what David the salesman Axlerod says but I'll wait until the president says it and all he's said is that it's his opinion that low level CIA operatives shouldn't be prosecuted. He also says that his opinion is worth about as much as mine in this case.
First, Cheney has no standing to ask, or demand anything from the CIA or any other government organ and I find the hubris to make that claim astonishing. Now there's a CIA source who says that Cheney has made no such request of them.
anything and everything you want to hear. An one who can count to 183.
Eichmann on the Holocaust: "These techniques ... made us safer. It really did work."
And EVERYTHING Hitler did was "legal" - his laws said it was!
MLK Jr pointed this out time and again when he was accused of breaking the law to move the Civil Rights Movement forward.
If torture worked and it was to scare off wannabes why not come out in 2002 and submit a law repealing Geneva because we have saved so many lives, EVERY nation should now start water-boarding.
If this is a replay of Nazi Germany and Cheney after his arguments fails in court commits suicide like a coward.
Weather that Himmel or Goring it's the same personality type.
With his constant carping against the president (surely unprecedented to have this level of criticism to a sitting president from a former VP) I think Obama should remove the security detail that Cheney gets and withdraw all other privileges afforded the ex-VP by us taxpayers. Cheney has lost the right to be treated with any dignity or respect. (I know - it's probably not Obama's call to do this but one can dream!! - just think how puckered up Hannity's sphincter would get and the associated whiner little git's reponse ...)
replace it with maximum security.
Whether or not these "memos" that (what a)Dick Cheney refers to "vindicates" him or not is NOT THE POINT!
The point is....the USA should be better then that.....we need to show the world that after the 8 year nightmare WE DON'T TORTURE.
I know Al Queda doesn't have a Constitution and THEY torture people.....I don't care....we're supposed to be better then that.
Heck....we prosecuted a Japanese officer after WW2 for the same damn thing....
... matters to filth like Dick Cheney and George Bush.
Bush is alleged to have remarked about the Constitution, "It's just a goddamned piece of paper!" (Probably true, but it was a single-source second-hand account, so I don't count it as gospel truth.)
around the nips isnt' it cheney? I love seeing this worm of a human in a panic.
After hundreds of water-boarding sessions, they finally got one poor schmuck to admit that they were thinking about other attacks.
BAM - crisis averted!! Cheney's a joke.
Cheney keeps living up to his given na,e.
If President Bush was only providing a snippet of a story that favored his point of view, there would be an uproar on the left. Step back and remove your political views for a moment.
Cheney is just trying to put everything in light, now that President Obama has opened that door.
Liberals, please remember the precedent that President Obama has set here when Conservatives unclassify documents on Obama in 4 or 8 years. Remember, it's a two way street.
Stop, Stop - I need a chance to breathe . . . oh, that's rich . . .
"Cheney is just trying to put everything in light"
Oh man, my side hurts!
if someone told a half truth about you? That's what I thought. You're either gutless or a liar.
Kettle.
Black.
More projection.
YOUR WAY IS THE ONLY WAY. Sorry to ruin your little story, but everything has two sides. Sorry to burst your little bubble.
form any coherent thoughts can you? You make up crap every time you post.
...blood and death. Oh I forgot...Obama's the same as Bush...ignorant.
If 2+2 = 4, 2+2=5 does not get equal time. One is correct, one is wrong.
"It is foolish to think there are two, equally valid and reasonable sides to every argument."
-- Edward R. Murrow
...to explain your point to Duece(IQ).
2 + 2 = uhh... FREEDOM!!!!!
Shouldn't that be Deuce anyway?
Unless he's trying to spell DOOKY or DOOCY.
This is coming from people who have lied over and over again.
Conservatives, stop swallowing shit every time it is handed to you and told that it is ambrosia.
"Step back and remove your political views for a moment."
You first.
I have an open mind. I understand the human element of your point of view, but I also understand the human element of national security in the US. See 9/11.
OH OK, President Obama has never lied. He is in politics. Are you that naive?
No, I did not...but you have to project and attack, since you've got nothing to stand on.
"I also understand the human element of national security in the US. See 9/11."
Translation: "I watch a LOT of 24."
Here's a clue.....it's a TV show.
Where spying on all citizens' conversations and Torturing it is normal and justified, In order to catch the "bad" guy.
I guess Dick produced that movie, by the way it just won an OSCAR.
I also understand the human element of national security in the US. See 9/11.
this is pure jibberish
what you advocate and defend has proven to be a GREAT recruiting tool for al qaeda. not to mention has alienated us internationally, and reduced any high-moral-ground we once claimed to have.
you can't hide behind 911 when it comes to systematic torture and human rights violation.
exposure of an al-qaeda double agent:
Source: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_8-8-2004_pg7_42
Was that not treason?
The sheer hypocrisy of Mr. Secrecy - the king of closed-door meetings, undisclosed locations, refusing to testify under oath, and 'just talking about this gives things away to the terrorists' - suddenly wanting to throw the doors open and tell us the truth is astounding.
That your only defense of TORTURE is to pitch a hypothetical just-you-wait until the next Republican president declassifies all of Obama's machinations is laughable.
There is no defense for torture. It is against the law, both international and domestic, upheld by the court. We have prosecuted people for these crimes, and holding the second-highest office in the land does not indemnify one.
...to lick Cheney's big wrinkled ass.
at the risk of breaching the truce, and acknowledging your point about the wrinkles, why do you allege Cheney's ass is big? Weasely might be a better adjective.
Sitemonitor suggested yesterday that I tone down my colorful language.
You are one big rainbow! ;)
with a pallid pallet. Frommin site monitor.
Liberals, please remember the precedent that President Obama has set here when Conservatives unclassify documents on Obama
unlike you, i want to know when the president, or his appointees, break national/international laws, torture people/kids, cast aside treaties, you name it.
you might prefer to live in ignorance and denial, but not me. i think most people living in a representative democracy would demand to know when the elected leaders are putting themselves above the law.
but, as your posts demonstrate, you not only accept near-authoritarian claims of secrecy/power, you defend them. sad day for america.
That's some spectacular, herculean cognitive dissonance you've got going there.
If you want the "truth" the first man to go running to is Dick Cheney. Mmm hmm.
Or get him a copy of Empire: Total War. He clearly has to have something to dominate. If we don't give him something harmless to play with to keep his Will to Power occupied, of course he's going to try to get back into the game of Rule the World.
If they did get vital and important info that saved people from some monstrous attack during their administration, how likely is it that they wouldn't have crowed and screeched about it to the public?
....it's classified information and should remain that way, in the best interest of our country.
Crawl back in your hole and life your life of fear.
Since it went COMPLETELY over your head, the meaning is that they WOULD have crowed and screeched about it. It would have helped the GOP immensely and they'd come off looking like heroes. But you just go back to watching 24.
You continue to make reference to it. Do you watch O'Reilly too? Open your mind a little. There are 2 sides to everything.
more projection. I don't watch right wing maturbatory fantasies. Open MY mind? Yours is so closed atomic particles couldn't get through.
I watch MSNBC from time to time, just see what is going on with the extreme left. You should always know what your opponent is thinking or believes in.
How yeah, you actually believe there is only way. YOUR WAY.
Never mind.
LIBRUL MEDIA!! LIBRUL MEDIA!!!!!!
WAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
Fill your diapers elsewhere troll, I'm tired of feeding you.
watching Joe Scarbough is really getting what the extreme left is saying.
You have no idea what's going on in this "extreme left" of which you speak.
The fact that you cite MSNBC as your source for "extreme left" material unequivocally proves this.
mind of yours at work again, huh Deuce?! I smell a (possibly paid-for) republican(t) troll... why don't you go play on your own far-right sites for awhile, huh? Seriously... you've got little to nothing to add here.
it's classified information and should remain that way, in the best interest of our country.
"best interest of the country" = protecting bush/cheney from the law
... in the best interest of our country, established as a country under the rule of law (as opposed to the whims of a king), then it behooves us to conduct ourselves in an appropriate manner, such that exposure of such material does not put us under scrutiny or subject us to criticism as to how we obtained it in the first place.
And it seems you're changing your tune from one moment to the next - first, you're claiming Dick Cheney is just trying to tell his side of the story; now, you're claiming it's all hush-hush ultra-super-secret and we, the peons, aren't worthy to regard the holiest of holies.
E'ed plebnista, and all that jazz.
It should ALL be classified. President Obama only released bits of the story to fit his agenda.
He didn't release those reports on the aliens, reverse engineering of UFOs, and Bigfoot!
There's a sale on tin-foil hats at Sears. Hurry, you might want to stock up!
You previously said it should ALL be declassified, to present the 'other side.'
Now you're saying it should all be CLASSIFIED.
Which is it?
Obama couldn't have "his" side of the story, unless he was present in the White House staff as the crimes against humanity were committed
from the keyboards makes me wonder if he was, in fact there. In spirit perhaps? Its been three months. How many are on trial for the Kennedy assasination?
....it's classified information and should remain that way, in the best interest of our country.
"The country needs to know that it's President is not a crook...well...I'm not a crook." - Richard Milhouse Nixon
I thought so.
"important info that saved people from some monstrous attack during their administration"
There was a monstrous attack during their administration, on September 11. Bush was golfing before that.
Somebody quick, chainey needs a doctor:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCMzjJjuxQI
Why not simply ask cheney why he and bush didn't declassify these papers when they were in the white house. That was only three months ago and they could have easily done it if they wanted the public to see them. Why did he wait until now to ask they be released?
President Obama only released a portion of the memos. Did the interrogations help save American lives? Let's open everything up now and see.
Why didn't you make this demand of booshco?
Especially after they showed contempt for security classifications by outing Valerie Plame.
Just go and watch "24", mommy will call you when dinner is ready.
Now that I think of it, didn't booshco ruin two British investigations by early disclosures to score political points for themselves?
So if there are any documents proving that they got actionable intelligence from torture, wouldn't they be the first to blow their own horn?
Fine by me. Rip those babies open and lets see it all.
Not sure what happened here, this comment was a reply to someone else so just ignore my comment, please
.
My guess is Obama can't release the entire records without compromising legal methods and sources, and since he's calling for no prosecutions there's no necessity to release individual agent's names, which of course would open him up to a new round of criticism.
Tue, 04/21/2009 - 11:21 — Duece
....it's classified information and should remain that way, in the best interest of our country.
Tue, 04/21/2009 - 11:23 — Duece
President Obama only released a portion of the memos. Did the interrogations help save American lives? Let's open everything up now and see.
____________________________________________________________________
You could hold a debate with yourself and still lose.
EVERYTHING SHOULD REMAIN CLASSIFIED (PERIOD).
But since President Obama is doing things to continue gaining support from the left, well yeah, lets open up everything.
We already know nothing's there.
As expressed before booshco played games with classifications, classifying their own criminal behavior, declassifying documents when it suited them, whether it was the wife of an enemy with a covert status or British investigations.
Nixon tried to classifying incriminating tapes from his own office.
In effect, what you're saying is releasing some of the documentation is endangering us all, so let's release all of it and make it worse!
And since they're not pursuing prosecutions (other than maybe some legal memo writers), they're actually losing some liberal support.
So are you saying it may hurt our country by releasing "some" of the docs?
Simple said, none of those documents should have been released. We can debate this until we're blue in the face. President Obama said, "all this information was already out there in the public."
So why release them? Political gain?
Like you said, they will not prosecute anyone, so what's the purpose.
To reestablish our alliances that was frayed by our Iraq policy.
Diplomacy is sending signals to both your own country as well as to other countries simultaneously.
ue, 04/21/2009 - 12:06 — Duece
Simple said, none of those documents should have been released...Obama said, "all this information was already out there in the public."
So why release them? Political gain?
______________________________________________________
You're arguing with yourself again, if they're already out there in the public, than it's not a releasing documentation of new incidences, or providing more detail than necessary that could create potential danger.
And again you're presuming that there is further documentation that would defend the torture practice for him to release.
Great detective works ysb!!!!!
Brilliant move on the part of Cheney. Demand the administration release documents that don't exist, then when the administration doesn't release them, you can go back on Faux and complain.
He's working the presumption that he'll be taken as correct, and when Obama understandably can't prove a negative, that will create a new line of republican propaganda to be broadcasted by FAUX.
We have to prosecute Cheney et al for all their crimes. Releasing the torture memos and then not indicting anyone is dumb.
Furthermore, it is clear that Cheney wanted war with Iraq to control global oil supplies and for "a new world order", whatever that means.
From the George HW Bush Library, published in Presidential Studies Quarterly:
March 2001 - The New World Order in Theory and Practice:
The Bush Administration's Worldview in Transition
same article -
Screw the torture investigation. I want to know what was in Cheney's office safe. I want to know who was on his energy task force. I want to know his role in the nuclear missiles at Minot Air Force Base. I want to know Cheney's profit from Halliburton's no-bid Iraq and Katrina contracts. I want to know ... oh forget it. We'll never know.
The piece of shit felon knows good and well the CIA can't produce evidence that torture provide good intel because they have no such evidence because it doesn't exist. But now of course cheney can say that the evidence is being withheld by the big mean Obama. What a douche this little turd is!
Is this Rahm Emanuel?
That's only employing an Argumentum ad Ignoracio, a logical flaw.
There you go, using them big words agin. And surely you know better than to use the word "logic" around some of these people. Just whips 'em into a frenzy.
Of lie, smoke-screens and obfuscation.
Too bad you can't.
Here is a man (?) whose actions speak louder than words. He spent eight years in silence because according to his interpretation of events, to speak would give aid and comfort to the enemy. On the few occasions where he did speak, it was with "you're either with us, or against us" intent.
Now out of office, he is spending his time laying the groundwork for his own defense against possible commision of war crimes charges filed either by (hopefully) our own Department of Justice, or other countries such as Spain.
The best we can hope for out of him is that his advanced age and damaged circulatory system will weigh into the dialogue, and he will drop dead in public on FAUX news (?)!
Come on people, he's not that bad of a guy. right? wrong.
When this guy's not shooting his friends in the face he's stabbing his country in the back. Jail this fucker until he dies. He has no right walking the streets as a free man.
and DICkkk himself had two shredder trucks at his home for a week destroying whitehouse records, DicKKK, of all people, knows that most of that stuff is largely unreproducable.
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