Cheney's speech ignored some inconvenient truths

[Life_Long_Dem!]

WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Dick Cheney's defense Thursday of the Bush administration's policies for interrogating suspected terrorists contained omissions, exaggerations and misstatements.

In his address to the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative policy organization in Washington, Cheney said that the techniques the Bush administration approved, including waterboarding — simulated drowning that's considered a form of torture — forced nakedness and sleep deprivation, were "legal" and produced information that "prevented the violent death of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of innocent people."

He quoted the Director of National Intelligence, Adm. Dennis Blair, as saying that the information gave U.S. officials a "deeper understanding of the al Qaida organization that was attacking this country."

In a statement April 21, however, Blair said the information "was valuable in some instances" but that "there is no way of knowing whether the same information could have been obtained through other means. The bottom line is that these techniques hurt our image around the world, the damage they have done to our interests far outweighed whatever benefit they gave us and they are not essential to our national security."

Cheney's speech ignored some inconvenient truths | McClatchy

 

[WillowTree]

WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Dick Cheney's defense Thursday of the Bush administration's policies for interrogating suspected terrorists contained omissions, exaggerations and misstatements.

In his address to the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative policy organization in Washington, Cheney said that the techniques the Bush administration approved, including waterboarding — simulated drowning that's considered a form of torture — forced nakedness and sleep deprivation, were "legal" and produced information that "prevented the violent death of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of innocent people."

He quoted the Director of National Intelligence, Adm. Dennis Blair, as saying that the information gave U.S. officials a "deeper understanding of the al Qaida organization that was attacking this country."

In a statement April 21, however, Blair said the information "was valuable in some instances" but that "there is no way of knowing whether the same information could have been obtained through other means. The bottom line is that these techniques hurt our image around the world, the damage they have done to our interests far outweighed whatever benefit they gave us and they are not essential to our national security."

Cheney's speech ignored some inconvenient truths | McClatchy

Yes yes sweetie we know you democwats care more about your image than your life or ours! what's new?? eneythin???

 

[Fraulein Hilda]

In a statement April 21, however, Blair said the information "was valuable in some instances" but that "there is no way of knowing whether the same information could have been obtained through other means. The bottom line is that these techniques hurt our image around the world, the damage they have done to our interests far outweighed whatever benefit they gave us and they are not essential to our national security."

And what would those "other means" have been?

Giving the terrorists iPods and Blockbuster DVDs?

Spell it out.

 

[midcan5]

The great irony here is while they were in office, they would have claimed anything that made them look good. So Cheney, a draft dodging fraud and liar, today does the same lying lines and the tools believe. It's so easy to make claims that can't be verified, reminds me of boys bragging how they made it to second base. Wonder if Cheney is still finding WMDs, he found them daily for a while.

 

[WillowTree]

The great irony here is while they were in office, they would have claimed anything that made them look good. So Cheney, a draft dodging fraud and liar, today does the same lying lines and the tools believe. It's so easy to make claims that can't be verified, reminds me of boys bragging how they made it to second base. Wonder if Cheney is still finding WMDs, he found them daily for a while.

why can't they be verified?

 

[Life_Long_Dem!]

the hard core cons on this board seem to be oblivious to most anything....you could tell them something that is a total bullshit lie and if it follows their beliefs they believe it almost instantly. Same can actually be said for hardcore libs but I myself am very skeptical of things so I look into it before I decide whether i believe it or not. As for the torture issue there is WAY to much proof out there not to ignore the reality that it was the wrong path to take and the very same info could have been obtained by more legal means.

 

[WillowTree]

the hard core cons on this board seem to be oblivious to most anything....you could tell them something that is a total bullshit lie and if it follows their beliefs they believe it almost instantly. Same can actually be said for hardcore libs but I myself am very skeptical of things so I look into it before I decide whether i believe it or not. As for the torture issue there is WAY to much proof out there not to ignore the reality that it was the wrong path to take and the very same info could have been obtained by more legal means.

What legal means? could you list them? and how can you prove the "very same info" could have been obtained???

 

[Fraulein Hilda]

the hard core cons on this board seem to be oblivious to most anything....you could tell them something that is a total bullshit lie and if it follows their beliefs they believe it almost instantly. Same can actually be said for hardcore libs but I myself am very skeptical of things so I look into it before I decide whether i believe it or not. As for the torture issue there is WAY to much proof out there not to ignore the reality that it was the wrong path to take and the very same info could have been obtained by more legal means.

Cheney laid it all out there, to the exent that he legally could. The rest is classified, and the only person in a position to get the truth out is your boy, and he's not doing it.

 

[PubliusInfinitum]

WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Dick Cheney's defense Thursday of the Bush administration's policies for interrogating suspected terrorists contained omissions, exaggerations and misstatements.

ROFL... DO TELL!

In his address to the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative policy organization in Washington, Cheney said that the techniques the Bush administration approved, including waterboarding — simulated drowning that's considered a form of torture — forced nakedness and sleep deprivation, were "legal" and produced information that "prevented the violent death of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of innocent people."

That's an established, deomonstrable, indisputable fact...

He quoted the Director of National Intelligence, Adm. Dennis Blair, as saying that the information gave U.S. officials a "deeper understanding of the al Qaida organization that was attacking this country."

In a statement April 21, however, Blair said the information "was valuable in some instances" but that "there is no way of knowing whether the same information could have been obtained through other means. The bottom line is that these techniques hurt our image around the world, the damage they have done to our interests far outweighed whatever benefit they gave us and they are not essential to our national security."

Cheney's speech ignored some inconvenient truths | McClatchy[/QUOTE]

GOLLY! If there was just ANYTHING in that sourced reference which supported, in ANY WAY your assertion, that would be a GREAT POINT... Sadly, there wasn't... so... well... you know...

 

[WillowTree]

Answers? You ask for answers???

 

[justabubba]

the right wing defending traitors
put down the kool aid and take a look at the facts instead

Cheney says that the attacks of September 11, 2001 “caused everyone to take a serious second look at threats that had been gathering for a while and enemies whose plans were getting bolder and more sophisticated.”
On the contrary, the plans were not new and bold and were well documented by the Central Intelligence Agency. In fact, a month prior to the attacks, President Bush and Dick Cheney both received a briefing on the matter. The August 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing entitled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in the US,” is fairly clear. The PDB mentions the following:
A clandestine source said in 1998 that a Bin Laden cell in New York was recruiting Muslim-American youth for attacks.
We have not been able to corroborate some of the more sensational threat reporting, such as that from a [deleted text] service in 1998 saying that Bin Laden wanted to hijack a U.S. aircraft to gain the release of "Blind Shaykh" 'Umar' Abd aI-Rahman and other U.S.-held extremists.
Nevertheless, FBI information since that time indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York.
The FBI is conducting approximately 70 investigations throughout the U.S. that it considers Bin Laden-related. CIA and the FBI are investigating a call to our embassy in the UAE in May saying that a group or Bin Laden supporters was in the U.S. planning attacks with explosives.
What did Bush do after receiving this briefing? He promptly went on vacation. It is unclear what Cheney did, but whatever it was, it had nothing to do with national security. In addition, torture was unneeded in obtaining this information. What was needed, however, was a White House interested in protecting our nation. It is therefore remarkable that Cheney continues to use 9/11 as a reason for his abuses of power, rather than be shamed by his indifference and negligence.

[emphasis added by bubba ... for more depth on this presidential non-response, check out The Raw Story » 9/11 commissioner slams Bush ]

cheney on the aq khan network:

Here is what he says about A.Q. Khan, the "father" of Pakistani nuclear weapons and a Middle East black market that sprang up around him:
This was the world in which al-Qaida was seeking nuclear technology and A.Q. Khan was selling nuclear technology on the black market. We had the anthrax attack from an unknown source. We had the training camps in Afghanistan and dictators like Saddam Hussein with known ties to Mideast terrorists.
--snip--
We did all of these things and, with bipartisan support, put all of these policies in place. It has resulted in serious blows against enemy operations: the takedown of the A.Q. Khan network and the dismantling of Libya's nuclear program.

if you are actually interested in the truth, read on:

In 2007, BBC’s Newsnight and the Guardian reported the following:
The Bush administration thwarted investigations of Dr. A.Q. Khan, known as the "father" of Pakistan's atomic bomb. This week, Khan confessed to selling atomic secrets to Libya, North Korea, and Iran.
The Bush Administration has expressed shock at disclosures that Pakistan, our ally in the war on terror, has been running a nuclear secrets bazaar. In fact, according to the British news teams' sources within US intelligence agencies, shortly after President Bush's inauguration, his National Security Agency (NSA) effectively stymied the probe of Khan Research Laboratories, the Pakistani agency in charge of the bomb project. CIA and other agents told BBC they could not investigate the spread of 'Islamic Bombs' through Pakistan because funding appeared to originate in Saudi Arabia.
Moreover, in 2003 it was Cheney and his team, including his former Chief of Staff I. Scooter Libby, who outed a covert operation tracking some - at least minimally - of the A.Q. Khan network. I broke this story in 2005 and here is what I reported then:
According to current and former intelligence officials, Plame Wilson, who worked on the clandestine side of the CIA in the Directorate of Operations as a non-official cover (NOC) officer, was part of an operation tracking distribution and acquisition of weapons of mass destruction technology to and from Iran.
--snip--
While many have speculated that Plame was involved in monitoring the nuclear proliferation black market, specifically the proliferation activities of Pakistan's nuclear "father," A.Q. Khan, intelligence sources say that her team provided only minimal support in that area, focusing almost entirely on Iran.
Although I was told a good deal more than this, including her then-most recent work on Iraq, I was restricted by my sources to reporting ONLY about Iran and ONLY touching on Pakistan. The nature of the "minimal support" remains highly classified. I was also restricted from using certain words and still have not been released from that restriction.
The reason for why my sources insisted on these conditions was that although they had felt strongly that what Cheney had done was indeed treason, they also felt strongly that too much information would expose the operation further and cause additional damages to agency methods and sources.
What we do know is that a group of clandestine officers provided at least "minimal support" in monitoring the A.Q. Khan network. What we also know is that this operation was compromised because Dick Cheney's office had to silence a good, honest, few Americans from speaking out about the lies that led us into Iraq.
Yet Cheney claims success in taking down A.Q. Khan's network.
Yes, it boggles the mind. These are but two examples in a speech littered with such claims despite well documented facts. Imagine, too, the networks covered this for the world to see. What did they cover? The world saw a former Vice President giving a speech in defense of torture and lying about even the most basic, known facts of what the Bush administration has done. If he could so brazenly lie about topics such as these, what else is he lying about? What must the world think of us for giving this man a podium on national television? Worse still, there are many defending him, regardless of the truth and regardless of the illegality of torture.

The Raw Story » The lie Cheney told about A.Q. Khan

that underlined statement is gonna sting

 

[Gunny]

WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Dick Cheney's defense Thursday of the Bush administration's policies for interrogating suspected terrorists contained omissions, exaggerations and misstatements.

In his address to the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative policy organization in Washington, Cheney said that the techniques the Bush administration approved, including waterboarding — simulated drowning that's considered a form of torture — forced nakedness and sleep deprivation, were "legal" and produced information that "prevented the violent death of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of innocent people."

He quoted the Director of National Intelligence, Adm. Dennis Blair, as saying that the information gave U.S. officials a "deeper understanding of the al Qaida organization that was attacking this country."

In a statement April 21, however, Blair said the information "was valuable in some instances" but that "there is no way of knowing whether the same information could have been obtained through other means. The bottom line is that these techniques hurt our image around the world, the damage they have done to our interests far outweighed whatever benefit they gave us and they are not essential to our national security."

Cheney's speech ignored some inconvenient truths | McClatchy

In other words, all you can actually do is split hairs, and address waterboarding out of context.

You DO of course have a copy of Bush's authorization to use waterboarding AFTER it was defined as torture. Right? Of course you don't.

Just more of the same old crap from the left.

 

[ABikerSailor]

There isn't a fucking thing that douchebag Cheney has said since his sorry wrinkled ass left the White House. He's probably the idiot that set up the "mission accomplished" banner for butt boy Bush Jr. to fly in and stand under.

Personally? I hope that the power goes out on his pacemaker and the fucker dies, slow and painful. Then maybe this country can get over the fiasco that was the 8 years of the last admin.

Maybe someone can pray to God and ask for a lightning strike on his ass........I mean, after all, the conservatives did it in calling for "Biblical rain" for Obama at the DNC.........

 

[Fraulein Hilda]

And yet, the only boy king who holds all the cards and could reveal all the truths will not...

 

[Chris]

Cheney is trying to keep from being prosecuted for torture.

He is covering his ass.

 

[Fraulein Hilda]

Barack Obama could prosecute him any time he wants, but he won't, because the issue is worth more to him to demagogue over.

 

[Gunny]

Cheney is trying to keep from being prosecuted for torture.

He is covering his ass.

Yeah and that's the REAL inconvenient truth here for the left ... those pesky little facts.

 

[Chris]

Cheney is trying to keep from being prosecuted for torture.

He is covering his ass.

Yeah and that's the REAL inconvenient truth here for the left ... those pesky little facts.

The inconvenient truth for the left is that the Dems were involved with mistreating prisoners in the past. Although they didn't promote it like Cheney. I never thought I would live to see the day that a vice president of the United States would be promoting torture.

Unbelievable!

 

[PubliusInfinitum]

the right wing defending traitors
put down the kool aid and take a look at the facts instead

Cheney says that the attacks of September 11, 2001 “caused everyone to take a serious second look at threats that had been gathering for a while and enemies whose plans were getting bolder and more sophisticated.”

On the contrary, the plans were not new and bold and were well documented by the Central Intelligence Agency.

ROFLMNAO... You are an IMBECILE... First, your understanding of the noun "new" and the adjective "bold" are in direct contrast to the words actual meaning...

It is simply not possible to conclude that the bombing of the Cole or the US Embassies in Africa, or any of the innumerable attacks on nightclubs, hotels, busses, cafes or other public places was not: distinct from their previous methods; recently made: recently made, created, or invented; were not yet used by anyone else In fact, a month prior to the attacks, or that the 9-11 method was one which replaced existing plans; those previously utilized: or that the 9-11 attack was replacing or supplementing the other mothods and less bold tactics of the same kind that already existed...

Thus, the methods employed on 9-11 were decidely NEW as new is defined as:
new

new [noo]
(comparative newer, superlative newest)
adj
1. recently made: recently made, created, or invented
a new drug

2. first-hand: not yet used by anyone else
It's a totally new washing machine

3. replacing existing one: replacing or supplementing something of the same kind that already exists

4. recently discovered: recently discovered or noticed, though existing before

5. with recently acquired status: having recently acquired a particular status or position

6. previously unfamiliar: not seen, known, or experienced by somebody before and thus unfamiliar

7. unused to something: unaccustomed to something, e.g. such as a place, job, or situation, through having only recently arrived there or experienced it for the first time

8. changed: changed, especially for the better

9. Newrevived or different: constituting a revived, different, improved, or more advanced form of something, e.g. a political or artistic movement, that already exists or that existed before

Just as it is not arguable that the methods of 9-11 were much bolder than the previous methods employed by our enemy, Islamic Terrorists...

Bold

bold [bōld]
adj (comparative bold·er, superlative bold·est)
1. fearless and adventurous: willing and eager to face danger or adventure with a sense of confidence and fearlessness
2. requiring or showing daring: requiring or showing fearlessness, daring, and often originality
3. impudent or presumptuous: lacking in modesty or impolitely assertive
4. clear and conspicuous: standing out and therefore easily noticed
bold colors

5. steep: rising abruptly and steeply from the surroundings

So this element of your assertion is REFUTED in it's entirety...

President Bush and Dick Cheney both received a briefing on the matter. The August 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing entitled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in the US,” is fairly clear. The PDB mentions the following:
A clandestine source said in 1998 that a Bin Laden cell in New York was recruiting Muslim-American youth for attacks.
We have not been able to corroborate some of the more sensational threat reporting, such as that from a [deleted text] service in 1998 saying that Bin Laden wanted to hijack a U.S. aircraft to gain the release of "Blind Shaykh" 'Umar' Abd aI-Rahman and other U.S.-held extremists.
Nevertheless, FBI information since that time indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York.
The FBI is conducting approximately 70 investigations throughout the U.S. that it considers Bin Laden-related. CIA and the FBI are investigating a call to our embassy in the UAE in May saying that a group or Bin Laden supporters was in the U.S. planning attacks with explosives.

What did Bush do after receiving this briefing? He promptly went on vacation.

ROFLMNAO... DAMN! you are one idiotic tool...

First, the 'briefing did not provide ANY ACTIONABLE data... SECOND; your use of the word "vacation," is in and of itself a deception... The President is on duty, in full and uninterupted communication with every facet of the executive branch... and this without exception to where he is at any given moment; so the President did not take this inactionable report, pack his bags, put a closed sign on the WH and head to Crawford... yet that is what you're desperate to imply...

... and the rest of your sourced material and the conclusions drawn by the pro-terrorist leftists therein are similarly absurd...


When it gets right down to it... we're basically looking at having to choose between the credibility of Dick Cheney, over that of the radical leftist press?

Hhmmmm...

ROFLMNAO... Get serious...

There's not a WORD of this which presents a serious, viable, potentially valid contest of ANYTHING Cheney has asserted... NONE OF IT!

 

[Joe_Penalty]

WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Dick Cheney's defense Thursday of the Bush administration's policies for interrogating suspected terrorists contained omissions, exaggerations and misstatements.

In his address to the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative policy organization in Washington, Cheney said that the techniques the Bush administration approved, including waterboarding — simulated drowning that's considered a form of torture — forced nakedness and sleep deprivation, were "legal" and produced information that "prevented the violent death of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of innocent people."

He quoted the Director of National Intelligence, Adm. Dennis Blair, as saying that the information gave U.S. officials a "deeper understanding of the al Qaida organization that was attacking this country."

In a statement April 21, however, Blair said the information "was valuable in some instances" but that "there is no way of knowing whether the same information could have been obtained through other means. The bottom line is that these techniques hurt our image around the world, the damage they have done to our interests far outweighed whatever benefit they gave us and they are not essential to our national security."

Cheney's speech ignored some inconvenient truths | McClatchy

Why is Richard B. Cheney appearing on television further incriminating himself?