By Jonathan S. Landay and Warren P. Strobel, McClatchy Newspapers Jonathan S. Landay And Warren P. Strobel, Mcclatchy Newspapers
Thu May 21, 7:10 pm ET
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."
A top-secret 2004 CIA inspector general's investigation found no conclusive proof that information gained from aggressive interrogations helped thwart any "specific imminent attacks," according to one of four top-secret Bush-era memos that the Justice Department released last month.
FBI Director Mueller Robert Muller told Vanity Fair magazine in December that he didn't think that the techniques disrupted any attacks.
Full Article.
Or to put it another way...
Cheney lied repeatedly in speech on closing Guantanamo.
* Cheney claimed that the Bush team "moved decisively against the terrorists in their hideouts and their sanctuaries, and committed to using every asset to take down their networks."
- Fact: Osama Bin Laden and his chief lieutenant, Ayman al Zawahri , remain at large. Moreover, the US diverted critical military resources from Afghanistan to Iraq, where al Qaeda was not in force until the US invaded.
* Cheney asserted there was no connection between Bush administration torture and detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib.
- Fact: The Senate Armed Services Committee found in December that Abu Ghraib abuses were linked to approval of Bush administration techniques.
* Cheney said "only detainees of the highest intelligence value" were subjected to torture.
- Fact: Cheney ignored Abu Zubaydah.
* Cheney said "the key to any strategy is accurate intelligence."
- Fact: The Bush administration used bogus intelligence as a pretense for invading Iraq -- including a forgery that purportedly linked Saddam Hussein to an attempt to purchase uranium from Niger.
* Cheney ignored the recently "suicided" al Qaida operative Ali Mohamed al Fakheri, who provided bogus intelligence about Iraq's links to al Qaeda.
* Cheney said Obama selectively released documents on Bush detainee policies.
- Fact: A decision to withhold documents Cheney requested for declassification was made by the CIA under a standing order from President George W. Bush..
* Cheney claimed that only "ruthless enemies of this country" were detained by US agents and sent to secret prisons and Guantanamo.
- Fact: "A 2008 McClatchy investigation, however, found that the vast majority of Guantanamo detainees captured in 2001 and 2002 in Afghanistan and Pakistan were innocent citizens or low-level fighters of little intelligence value who were turned over to American officials for money or because of personal or political rivalries."
More Here.
Cheney's speech contained omissions, misstatements
Discussion in 'Political Debate & Discussion' started by poncho, May 24, 2009.
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Poncho, why do you suppose that the special interest financial moguls that pull the puppet strings of the US government want to waterboard innocent peasants from the Middle East in Cuba or create naked Iraqi piles in Iraq?
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Oh, and newsbusters is on the case according to this:
LE -
I trust that all is well with you and yours.
You DO realize that the John Locke Foundation is a conservative thinktank, don't you? Moreover, Newsbusters would hardly be considered to be an objective source. This is the Media Research Center, and more specifically, Brent Bozell, hardly an objective individual. For example, when was the last time you saw Newsbusters report on any errors at FoxNews? I know that I haven't seen one in a while. But then again, Bozell is on the network frequently, isn't he?
As for "hate," that is a very strong assertion. Did you see either reporter use that word to describe hatred for the former POTUS?
If you are going to cite a source that is accusing someone of bias, be sure to understand the perspective of the source.
Again, hope all is well, haven't been here for a while, good to see you still posting in the forum. Don't always agree with you, but always enjoy reading your posts!
BiR -
Hey, BiR, good to see you back and thanks for your kind note! :)
Agree with your comment, believe it or not, but do strongly disagree with the OP.
Hope all is well with you and yours.
LE -
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Since these financial moguls control the media why not just fabricate whole stories about these things without the trouble of actually doing it?
Since they control everything why don't they just implement the entire plan now? Why would they bother to play all these games? -
Any one of their puppets can be publically sacrificed if need be to fool and manipulate the population into believing a "top dog" has been taken down and justice served when in reality the real top dogs get away scott free to carry on business as usual with the next puppet. Basically it's all illusion and sleight of hand stuff. Making us think we have a choice and are part of the "solution" when in fact they are the one's who cause the problems (crisis) in order to stir up a public reaction and ready us to agree with and accept the solution or policy they already had written up and waiting.
It's called "problem reaction solution". Rulers have been using this since ancient times to control and manipluate the masses. One would think that after thousands of years the masses would have caught on to this old trick. But we haven't...yet. -
Like the moon landing. Why actually go if you can just make a film on a back lot.
Why actually put innocent Middle Eastern peasants in Gito if you can just make up footage on a back lot and call it an undisclosed location? -
But not only that we're talking about evil people who probably get a kick out of turning us all into a hate filled paranoid mass who would turn on each other for no reason other a difference of opinion. Divide and conquer another ancient trick still used by the elite today, another trick we haven't quite caught onto yet. Look around here for a bit and you'll see people defending their side of the criminal element in government simply because they believe their criminals are right and the other guy's criminal is wrong.
Crazy I know but that's the way it is. -
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I was thinking about you not too long ago - was in Nashville on business last month. I was thinking about how long it's been since I visited the board.
Again, great hearing from you,
BiR (in St. Louis)