Just when I started to feel sorry for the frat boy, I read some transcripts from his number two man, the devil incarnate himself, Dick Cheney. Seems now that we are just days away from the frat boy's final farewell the evil one has finally decided to talk. Oh he talked before, which is kind of how we know he is the evil one. Remember this interview back in 2005 with Terry Moran of ABC News?
Moran: "Don't you have to have a court give permission for that in any other circumstance -- to eavesdrop on communications in America? "
Cheney: "Terry, these are communications that involve acknowledged or known terrorists -- dirty numbers, if you will. And in fact, it is consistent with the president's constitutional authority as commander in chief. It's consistent with the resolution that was passed by the Congress after 9/11. And it has been reviewed repeatedly by the Justice Department every single time it's been renewed, to make certain that it is, in fact, managed in a manner that's fully consistent with the Constitution and with our statutes. "
Cheney: "Terry, these are communications that involve acknowledged or known terrorists -- dirty numbers, if you will. And in fact, it is consistent with the president's constitutional authority as commander in chief. It's consistent with the resolution that was passed by the Congress after 9/11. And it has been reviewed repeatedly by the Justice Department every single time it's been renewed, to make certain that it is, in fact, managed in a manner that's fully consistent with the Constitution and with our statutes. "
That was the evil one on domestic surveillance.
Moran:" How so, when it comes to cruel, inhuman-- What's the president's prerogative in the cruel treatment of prisoners? "
Cheney: "There's a definition that's based on prior Supreme Court decisions and prior arguments, and it has to do with the Fourth, Thirteenth, and -- three specific amendments to the Constitution. And the rule is whether or not it shocks the conscience. If it's something that shocks the conscience, the court has agreed that crosses over the line.
Now, you can get into a debate about what shocks the conscience and what is cruel and inhuman. And to some extent, I suppose, that's in the eye of the beholder. But I believe, and we think it's important to remember, that we are in a war against a group of individuals and terrorist organizations that did, in fact, slaughter 3,000 innocent Americans on 9/11, that it's important for us to be able to have effective interrogation of these people when we capture them.
And the debate is over the extent to which we are going to have legislation that restricts or limits that capability. Now, as I say, we've reached a compromise. The president signed on with the McCain amendment. We never had any problem with the McCain amendment. We had problems with trying to extend it as far as he did. But ultimately, as I say, a compromise was arrived at, and I support the compromise."
Moran: "Should American interrogators be staging mock executions [and] waterboarding prisoners? Is that cruel? "
Cheney: "I am not going to get into specifics here. You're getting into questions about sources and methods, and I don't talk about that, Terry."
Moran: "As vice president of the U.S., you can't tell the American people whether… "
Cheney: "I don't talk about-- "
Moran: …or not we would interrogate… "
Cheney: "I can say that we, in fact, are consistent with the commitments of the United States that we don't engage in torture. And we don't. "
Moran: "Are you troubled at all that more than 100 people in U.S. custody have died -- 26 of them now being investigated as criminal homicides -- people beaten to death, suffocated to death, died of hypothermia in U.S. custody? "
Cheney: "No. I won't accept your numbers, Terry. But I guess one of the things I'm concerned about is that as we get farther and farther away from 9/11, and there have been no further attacks against the U.S., there seems to be less and less concern about doing what's necessary in order to defend the country. "
That was the evil one on torture.
Moran: "Does the United States maintain secret prisons around the world?
Cheney: "I'm not going to talk about intelligence matters.
Moran: Secret prisons?"
Cheney: "I'm not going to talk about intelligence matters."
Moran: "Does the International Red Cross have access to everyone in U.S. custody, as we are obliged?"
Cheney: "Terry, with all due respect, I won't discuss intelligence matters. I shouldn't.
Moran: I'd like to put this personally, if I can. You're a grandfather. I'm a father. When we look at those girls and we think that the country we're about to pass to them is a country where the vice president can't say whether or not we have secret prisons around the world, whether waterboarding and mock executions is consistent with our values, and a country where the government is surveilling without the warrant of a court, is that the country we want to pass on to them?"
Cheney: "I'm not going to talk about intelligence matters.
Moran: Secret prisons?"
Cheney: "I'm not going to talk about intelligence matters."
Moran: "Does the International Red Cross have access to everyone in U.S. custody, as we are obliged?"
Cheney: "Terry, with all due respect, I won't discuss intelligence matters. I shouldn't.
Moran: I'd like to put this personally, if I can. You're a grandfather. I'm a father. When we look at those girls and we think that the country we're about to pass to them is a country where the vice president can't say whether or not we have secret prisons around the world, whether waterboarding and mock executions is consistent with our values, and a country where the government is surveilling without the warrant of a court, is that the country we want to pass on to them?"
Cheney: "I want to pass on to them a country that is free, that is not plagued by terrorist attacks, doesn't see a repeat of the terrible events of 9/11 when we lost 3,000 of our people that morning to a handful of terrorists who had no justification at all for what they do.
I can guarantee you that we do do as a government, as an administration, is to support and uphold the Constitution of United States, that we do, in fact, take extraordinary steps to make certain we maintain our constitutional obligations and responsibilities, which includes both defending the country as well as defending individual liberties and protecting the rights of all Americans. "
That was the evil one on secret prisons.
Fast forward to 2008, and the evil one is still talking to ABC.
KARL:"Did you authorize the tactics that were used against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed?
CHENEY: I was aware of the program, certainly, and involved in helping get the process cleared, as the agency, in effect, came in and wanted to know what they could and couldn't do. And they talked to me, as well as others, to explain what they wanted to do. And I supported it.
KARL: In hindsight, do you think any of those tactics that were used against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and others went too far?"
CHENEY: I don't. "
CHENEY: I was aware of the program, certainly, and involved in helping get the process cleared, as the agency, in effect, came in and wanted to know what they could and couldn't do. And they talked to me, as well as others, to explain what they wanted to do. And I supported it.
KARL: In hindsight, do you think any of those tactics that were used against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and others went too far?"
CHENEY: I don't. "
Okaaay.
KARL: "And on KSM, one of those tactics, of course, widely reported was waterboarding. And that seems to be a tactic we no longer use. Even that you think was appropriate?
CHENEY: I do."
CHENEY: I do."
Okaaay.
KARL: "You probably saw Karl Rove last week said that if the intelligence had been correct, we probably would not have gone to war."
CHENEY: "I disagree with that. I think -- as I look at the intelligence with respect to Iraq -- what they got wrong was that there weren't any stockpiles. What we found in the after-action reports, after the intelligence report was done and then various special groups went and looked at the intelligence and what its validity was. What they found was that Saddam Hussein still had the capability to produce weapons of mass destruction. He had the technology, he had the people, he had the basic feed stocks.
They also found that he had every intention of resuming production once the international sanctions were lifted. He had a long reputation and record of having started two wars. Of having brutalized and killed hundreds of thousands of people, some of them with weapons of mass destruction in his own country. He had violated 16 National Security Council resolutions. He had established a relationship as a terror-sponsoring state, according to the State Department. He was making $25,000 payments to the families of suicide bombers.
This was a bad actor and the country's better off, the world's better off, with Saddam gone, and I think we made the right decision, in spite of the fact that the original NIE was off in some of its major judgments. "
So waterboarding is cool, and we would have gone to war whether we found WMDs in Iraq or not."
"This was a bad actor and the country's better off, the world's better off, with Saddam gone, and I think we made the right decision, in spite of the fact that the original NIE was off in some of its major judgements."
Just a little off Dick? Thousands of lives lost, countless wounded, and approaching a trillion dollars in cost, and yet we made the "right decision"?
You know what Dick? The world might be better off without Saddam. But here is the irony of it all; pretty soon, you will get a chance to spend a whole lot of time with him.
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