20 Years After Iran-Contra, Cheney Defends Torture's "Little Guys"
Announcing his Christmas 1992 pardons of Caspar Weinberger and five other Iran-Contra figures, President George H.W. Bush introduced a time-honored Republican scandal evasion by decrying "the criminalization of policy differences." Now, 22 years after his own role in a Congressional minority report which blasted the allegations of Reagan administration abuses of power as "hysterical," Dick Cheney is back to defend the "little guys" now at the center of the Bush 43 administration's regime of detainee torture.
In an interview with 9/11-Iraq fabulist and chief Cheney hagiographer Stephen Hayes, the Vice President explained why he was not following George W. Bush's guidance that President Obama "deserves my silence." Just like Oliver North and Cap Weinberger all those years ago, the "little guys" who architected and carried out waterboarding and other potential war crimes, Cheney insisted, deserve his protection:
"I went through the Iran-contra hearings and watched the way administration officials ran for cover and left the little guys out to dry. And I was bound and determined that wasn't going to happen this time. I think to George Tenet's credit-I don't agree with George on a lot of stuff-but I think he was of the same view and that's why we had all of these requests coming through for policy guidance and for legal opinions. And this time around I'll do my damndest to defend anybody out there-be they in the agency carrying out the orders or the lawyers who wrote the opinions. I don't know whether anybody else will, but I sure as hell will."
Looking back on then-Representative Dick Cheney's hand in the 1987 Congressional Iran-Contra Committee minority report, one could be excused for performing a mental copy and paste. Substitute Bush for Reagan and torture for Iran-Contra, and you'd thnk you were reading an excerpt of Cheney's upcoming book:
"The bottom line, however, is that the mistakes of the Iran-contra affair were just that - mistakes in judgment, and nothing more. There was no constitutional crisis, no systematic disrespect for ''the rule of law,'' no grand conspiracy, and no Administration-wide dishonesty or coverup. In fact, the evidence will not support any of the more hysterical conclusions the committees' report tries to reach."
Then as now, Cheney and his allies insisted Democrats were "criminalizing politics." Rep. Cheney even anticipated Michael Mukasey's claim that "the Bybee memo, to paraphrase a French diplomat, was worse than a sin, it was a mistake." Which makes the use of the same language by Attorney General Eric Holder ("we don't want to criminalize policy differences that might exist") and President Obama ("whatever legal rationales were used, it was a mistake") all the more disconcerting.
Karl Marx famously said that historical events occur twice, first as tragedy and the second time as farce. Of course, Karl Marx never met Dick Cheney.
I'll do my damndest to defend anybody out there-be they in the agency carrying out the orders or the lawyers who wrote the opinions.
I agree with Cheney.
Focus on those who gave the order.
* There are two types of Republicans: millionaires and suckers.
"Mugsy's Rap Sheet": Recording history for those who seek to rewrite it.
If not, then every prison guard at every Nazi concentration camp was innocent of any crime, as they too were just following orders.
that's absolutely true as you state it. There's even laws on the U.S. books that state an accomplice is guilty by association. So what Mugsy and Dick are saying is utter bull$hit!
I believe Mr. Watada said No, but he's one of the few...
army privates hung out to dry but dick is protecting the little guys. dick will protect who ever it is who can rat him out in court. he'll cover his "six" o'clock.
continue to block war crimes prosecutions they need to be brought up on charges for that. That is our law!
We're going to have to move beyond monetizing media soon or later and transforming ideas into action.
say the darndest things.
War Criminal, Kissenger is also still alive, living very finely in a NYC Penthouse facing Central Park. He is the real 'father' of neoNAZIcons.
Except for those barely literate kids who "carried out orders" at Abu Graibb, right? Protect the "little guys" ? No, protect your own is more like it.
... and left the little guys out to dry." You mean like Lynndie Englund and Charles Graner, Mr. Cheney? Nice going. You shaped history so it repeated itself.
Everytime this serial killer speaks he digs a deeper hole.
to put him in that hole, then?
so, to cheney, a private in the army, used as the admin's scapegoat to blame for america's torture policy, is not seen as a little guy. BUT, a sitting federal judge, with nearly 0 accountability, is a little guy?
what a boob, a man boob, a flabby, wrinkled man boob.
Mooooooob.
anyone who isn't VP or greater is a 'little guy.' The people serving time for these crime are microbial in his view. Not worthy of consideration, even though they are doing time for the crimes HE fomented.
Reminds me of a Twilight Zone episode. The outcome will be similar, even if it's just Old Man Time come to fetch this clapped out evil wheezing bag of bones to take him to his reward.
me-oww!
for the first time ever (and last), i want to thank dickless cheney.
thank you mr. war criminal for reopening the iran-contra wound. lest people forget another instance of the GOP's corruption, and illegal activities, it is good to talk about these crimes from time to time.
that you can't just forget these things... those iran-contra freaks should have all been prosecuted way back then, so we wouldn't be dealing with this crap now. That's my opinion at least.
They will, in hell.
poor karl
back then too...
guess he was born with teh assholishness, and nurtured it up to now.
If the law doesn't apply to everyone (and everyone means everyone) equally then we cannot claim to be a nation of laws, we are a nation of Concrete Laws for the poor and Flexible Guide Lines for the rich.
And Obama (of who I am a supporter) needs to show everyone that he is not the same as Ford who refused to investigate Nixon's criminal gang or Clinton who refused to investigate the Reagan/Bush criminal gang.
And it's always the same BS "we want to look forward" and you cannot tell me that these people don't know you cannot move past your problems until you admit there is a problem and seek help! We need help in holding the Business and Political Criminals accountible to prove to the world that we are a serious nation and that our laws actualy mean something.
I love how all the "letter of the law" people who cried out during the Clinton scandal seem to have lost their passion for the law now that it's their party.
And I for one think war crimes are much more serious then oral sex.
But maybe that's just me!
It's not the crime, but the cover up.
If Clinton hadn't lied he'd be ok. If Bush were still in office and behaving as passively as Obama is, there would be impeachment hearings starting any day. Unfortunately, we care more about people trying to hide that they broke the law than them actually breaking the law, or in Clinton's case, just being indecent.
Good point - as a nation we tend to be more focused on the cover up then the degree of the crime.
But then America has been a voyer nation for a long time now. We enjoy the fun of uncovering whatever it is then we do inspecting what we uncovered!
and I agree wholeheartedly... Well Mr. Obama, I hope you've read this too and take the appropriate recourse.
there is no God.
I thought that BEER was proof that god loves us.
;)
You're thinking of weed.
Oh, wait... now I'm thinking of weed.
Now ya got ME thinkin o' teh reefers too!
could there be...two gawds that loves us that much?
and he knows it that is why he sins so freely.
I don't believe in the popular idea of "God" either but I try to live by the golden rule because I think that is the way the world should work. Which is proof* that you don't need religion to have morals and values.
*I don't know if proof is the right word, but I couldn't think of anything better at the time :(
God is a dick with a fucked up sense of humor. He farted out cheney and thought it would be funny if we had to put up with him. Like the driver with a full car who locks the windows and farts. cheney is the fart and the world is the car.
Criminalizing politics occurs when politicians commit crimes. It occurs again when politicians decide to shield themselves or other politicians from the consequences of committing crimes. It does not occur when criminals are brought to justice.
"In theory theory and practice are alike. In practice they are very different."
Do the Dems ever make these phony arguments? Isn't it ALWAYS Regressives like Cheney or Delay who, with their backs to the wall, start with this "criminalizing politics" crap?
And isn't it always about trying to change the subject and distract?
Aren't they ALWAYS the ones who try to use the "both sides do it" smear defense? Aren't they ALWAYS the ones who rush to excuse their blatant bad faith as a "political witch hunt"?
Rove said that when you're on defense, you're losing. And when you're losing, change the frame.
Well, the PUKIES are doing just that, trying to change the frame, and proving to be not very good at that, either. So there you go, ASSHOLE - now we know the PUKIES as the party of NO.
You are just digging yourself deeper. Go ahead and defend "the little guys just following orders." That only increases your own culpability.
BTW, care to join me in Madrid for tapas?
My treat.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
Thanks, Jon. Several of us have been mentioning the through-line from Watergate through Iran-Contra to the Bush-Cheney abuses for some time now, all the more striking given Eliot Abrams' involvement and Cheney's imperial assertions on Iran-Contra. It's great to see his statements verbatim.
Iran-Contra also reveals one problem with a truth commission on torture - it can't be allowed to immunize targets as Congress did with Iran-Contra, undercutting the criminal investigation.
No one really paid sufficiently for Iran-Contra. And it's one more glaring example that these authoritarians will never, ever stop voluntarily and the Beltway pundits will never stop them, either. Only keeping them out of power, oversight, and actual accountability and punishment will work.
Dick Cheney... That man is one zero-degrees-kelvin piece of shit.
for all the 'little guys.'
He's a courageous guy, Cheney, innit?
So we indict, try, and convict him for war crimes. Sentence him to public hanging.
Set up the gallows on the National Mall, right near the Vietnam Memorial, which war he was too 'good' or too 'busy' to fight.
After his fuukin head 'accidentally' comes off with the hangman's rope, THEN we let the "little guys" go...
.
Hey Cheney, tell that to Lynndie England.
And her boss - still in prison.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
You know, there's a question I keep wishing the media would ask these people:
"Were a foreign nation to practice waterboarding, walling, stress positions, etc on a US soldier legitimately taken as a prisoner of war, do you think that's acceptable?"
Because at that point they've pretty much got two options; admit it's torture, or say "Sure, I don't mind if our troops get the same treatment."
Some of them have already gone on the record, of course, stating that even if it is torture it's ok so long as it produced useful evidence, but then that begs the follow up question of whether its ok to subject our own soldiers to the same treatment under the same logic.
The real answer is obviously "It's only ok when we do it, because we're America!", but it's kinda hard to reconcile that argument with the Geneva Conventions and international laws of war in general.
So, Cheney: If, say, Milosevic had ordered the waterboarding and walling and other "non-torture" treatment of US troops, would you say "Don't persecute the little guys" who did it? Even if, say, a dozen had died under said treatment? What about Milosevic himself? He would have a problematic answer to that.
This time around the circle must be broken. Cheney and his boys get worse each time around.
What a foolish mistake not to make an example of Cheney, and bush too if that's what it comes to.
This moment is what laws are all about. I guess the DOJ has some 'splainin' ta do too?
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
Prosecute criminal politicians!
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
5 Deferment Dick used to be the Top Dog in the Country,having his nose stuck up in everyone else's arse and business. From outing a CIA agent, to helping make America's prestige and moral convictions in the world lower than whale sh*t,( it's found on the bottom of the ocean 5-6 miles deep.) now according to a April 24,2009 article in the NY Times Sherly Gay Stolberg writes, this is how 5 Deferment Dick spends his days:
" On the mornings he is in town DICK CHENEY wakes up at 6, climbs into his black sport utility vehicle and drives himself to a Starbucks near his McClain, Va. home. He returns with a pair of grande skim lattes - decaf for him,regular for his wife,Lynn - and settles into work in the sun-drenched office above his garage, penning his memior in longhand on yellow legal pads"
Closing the article with, "As for Mr. Cheney, he does not have anymore interviews scheduled,although from working on his book,he has been meeting with foreign dignitaries,hosting policy luncheons around his kitchen table (it seats 10) and spending a fair amount of time at his other homes, in Wyoming and on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. He will be making a speech in New york soon,his daughter said,he has a couple fishing trips planned in May."
Cheney until Jan 20,2009 could make countries across the globe shake in fear hoping that he wouldn't bomb them back into the stone age. Cheney the most powerful man in the Bush Administration towering even over W, now is regulated to driving to Starbucks for lattes in early morning traffic, then climbing some stairs up to his sun-drenched office above his garage, meeting with so-called foreign dignitaries,and hosting policy luncheons around his big 10 seat kitchen table!
Oh how the mighty have fallen,no wonder he had to be wheeled out to the Inaguration, he had just realized his whole reason for living had just collapsed in front oh him,"Power" and it was now all gone! Wait till Lynn leaves him for a gay,fire and brimstone spouting modern day Elmer Gantry!
"climbs into his black sport utility vehicle and drives himself"
If only we were lucky enough to have a drunk driver in a big ass pick-up decide to take a drive along his route.
I think he's busy planning buschCo part two.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
just drive a stake through this creature's heart and be done with it?
He's protecting himself. If there's an investigation it's going to lead to Cheney.
I just had a horrifying thought...
Is "Dick", sensing the void in GOP leadership, trying to position himself for a shot at the big chair in '12? Even though he was de facto president for 8 years can his tiny, tiny peepee deal with the fact that he never had the title?
Assuming that the folks at Disney can replace his failing body with a suitable animatronic host (that would still have more soul than his current body) is he going to run for President? Traditionally the ex-VP has had the first in line position.
That's a creepy thought, and just right for Cheney, who along with Bush Sr., wacked Kennedy in Dallas. Don't stop with Iran-contra, go all the way back to 1963, and then connect the dots to 1932 and Prescott Bush, the oven-maker to Hitler.
This pile of shit that is partly responsible for the death of maybe a million people protecting the little guy? What a laugh! What a crying shame!
Thank the good Lord for 'Pricky Dick' Cheney. (LOL)
For the big Dick to come to the rescue of all the little Dicks.Nothing worse than a hypocrite Dick.
BACK in 1983,the reagan justice dept successfully prosecuted a texas sheriff and his deputies for water boarding.you can find the info truthout.org dated april 27th.this isn't rocket science-that middle school er who grilled dr.rice on this understands this issue-water boarding is torture,its illegal-no serious person is glad this happened whilst one or the other factions of the same corporatist party was/is in power.there were crimes committed-mistakes,blunders,sins or frat pranks aside-there needs to be a through investigation,some folks will be indicted,tried,and perhaps even convicted.the subsequent appeal to the supreme court with its fringe ideological justices-alito,scalia,roberts,and thomas,might even fail.would that constitute a witch hunt? only to those people who broadly construct the definition of that word beyond recognition.
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