Comments on: V.P. No More, Cheney Makes Curtain Call

Behind-The-Scenes Power Broker Of Bush Presidency Raises Profile In Attacks On Obama

[ianlou]

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[ianlou]

Watch the faces behind Cheney to change from Secret Service Looking to Blackwater Thug Looking; Cheney's Secret Service detail is scheduled to be done This weekend.

How could America turn it's back on such a Giant Self Imposed Power Broker as The Big Richard?

[rednomo]

Former Senior Interrogator in Iraq Dissects Cheney's Lies and Distortions

As a senior interrogator in Iraq (and a former criminal investigator), there was a lesson I learned that served me well: there's more to be learned from what someone doesn't say than from what they do say. Let me dissect former Vice President Dick Cheney's speech on National Security using this model and my interrogation skills.

First, VP Cheney said, "This recruitment-tool theory has become something of a mantra lately... it excuses the violent and blames America for the evil that others do." He further stated, "It is much closer to the truth that terrorists hate this country precisely because of the values we profess and seek to live by, not by some alleged failure to do so." That is simply untrue. Anyone who served in Iraq, and veterans on both sides of the aisle have made this argument, knows that the foreign fighters did not come to Iraq en masse until after the revelations of torture and abuse at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. I heard this from captured foreign fighters day in and day out when I was supervising interrogations in Iraq. What the former vice president didn't say is the fact that the dislike of our policies in the Middle East were not enough to make thousands of Muslim men pick up arms against us before these revelations. Torture and abuse became Al Qaida's number one recruiting tool and cost us American lives.

Secondly, the former vice president, in saying that waterboarding is not torture, never mentions the fact that it was the United States and its Allies, during the Tokyo Trials, that helped convict a Japanese soldier for war crimes for waterboarding one of Jimmie Doolittle's Raiders. Have our morals and values changed in fifty years? He also did not mention that George Washington and Abraham Lincoln both prohibited their troops from torturing prisoners of war. Washington specifically used the term "injure" -- no mention of severe mental or physical pain.

Thirdly, the former vice president never mentioned the Senate testimony of Ali Soufan, the FBI interrogator who successfully interrogated Abu Zubaydah and learned the identity of Jose Padilla, the dirty bomber, and the fact that Khalid Sheikh Mohammad (KSM) was the mastermind behind 9/11. We'll never know what more we could have discovered from Abu Zubaydah had not CIA contractors taken over the interrogations and used waterboarding and other harsh techniques. Also, glaringly absent from the former vice president's speech was any mention of the fact that the former administration never brought Osama bin Laden to justice and that our best chance to locate him would have been through KSM or Abu Zubaydah had they not been water boarded.

In addition, in his continued defense of harsh interrogation techniques (aka torture and abuse), VP Cheney forgets that harsh techniques have ensured that future detainees will be less likely to cooperate because they see us as hypocrites. They are less willing to trust us when we fail to live up to our principles. I experienced this firsthand in Iraq when interrogating high-ranking members of Al Qaida, some of whom decided to cooperate simply because I treated them with respect and civility.

The former vice president is confusing harshness with effectiveness. An effective interrogation is one that yields useful, accurate intelligence, not one that is harsh. It speaks to a fundamental misunderstanding of interrogations, the goal of which is not to coerce information from a prisoner, but to convince a prisoner to cooperate.

Finally, the point that is most absent is that our greatest success in this conflict was achieved without torture or abuse. My interrogation team found Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, the former leader of Al Qaida in Iraq and murderer of tens of thousands. We did this using relationship-building approaches and non-coercive law enforcement techniques. These worked to great effect on the most hardened members of Al Qaida -- spiritual leaders who had been behind the waves of suicide bombers and, hence, the sectarian violence that swept across Iraq. We convinced them to cooperate by applying our intellect. In essence, we worked smarter, not harsher.

[boatdocster]

Resolute and wrong is still wrong. Over 70% of ***** Cheney's PNAC predictions have been proven to be wrong. Despite being proven wrong, Mr Cheney said he "given the chance, would do everything exactly the same way again".

Cheney would have you believe that only he, and people like him, know what's best for you. We may be attacked again, but I will never surrender my freedoms or liberties to a man like ***** Cheney, not for any price.

?If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.? - Joseph Goebbels

[maxcoffee-2009]

I do try to do my best...
It sucks that some teachers do molest children. There will always be bad apples. Same with gun control laws, preachers, money managers, or whatever. There is always going to be someone the screws it up for the rest of us, which ever group you might fall in. Education doesn't seem to get much attention... Only when the system starts to fail. I can't say that thier is justice in raising taxes to pay for things like class size bils or what have you. Raising taxes seems tobe the result of not being able to create new taxable things... Tabacoo and booze have been taxed to death, transfats and other things that are "unhealthy" have been tried to be taxed. If we could find new taxable items that would remove the burdon that would be great. Saddly many of those "things" have been demonized.

[maxcoffee-2009]

What a great idea... Fried fetus. I bet it's finger lickin' good.
After all if plecenta is rich in vitamins and minerals then fetus must be wonderful for ones heath.
I hear it's all the rage in Pyonyang.

[maxcoffee-2009]

Actually I'm on of those useless teachers... how can I prove it? I can't. You'll just have to trust me.
I'm hoping for higher taxes so people will not be able to have children. Perhaps the abortion rate will increase and there will be more babies to kill. At least that's what I'm gunning for. When the abortion rate goes up... I'll open a small recreational bussiness where people can come and kill babies for tickets to win prizes. Like skeeball only a bit bloodier.

[maxcoffee-2009]

Bornfreeordie...
I have a job...
I pay taxes...
I don't feel low... I feel pretty up beat actually... when i feel low I usually kill a baby. It's way
more effective than anything a doctor could give me.

From your posts it seems as though you are the one whos is crying.
It would also seem that you do not care much from democracy either.

[stn_sage]

Dick Cheney resembles another former vice-president of the United States---Spiro Agnew!

They caught Mr. Agnew taking cash payoffs in brown paper bags that he would toss in the bottom draws of his office desk!

And like Mr. Cheney---he went on a "i'm innocent, I know what I'm talking about" tour de force---relying upon the goodwill and support of his loyal supporters, the whole while he was negotiating with the prosecutors and judge for a lenient sentence if he RESIGNED from
the vice-presidency!

Well---Mr. Agnew was never REALLY punished, but at least they got him out of government BEFORE he did too much harm! In Mr. Cheney's case---we haven't been as lucky!

Instead, Mr. Cheney---hoping to avoid prosecution---has come out "swinging"---believing that an aggressive offense is the best defense, he has! But, he's making a mistake---

Because taking the "public stage" again---only reminds most of us---of what a thoroughgoing, evil criminal he truly is! And it reminds us---how the government and the Democrat party has FAILED to investigate and bring this criminal to justice!

Cheney is NOT giving the power base in Washington D.C. a reason NOT to pursue him, but just the opposite! Because their failure to do so, destroys their own credibility to govern and sooner or later they will be forced to!

[chitown639]

What a beautiful day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have not seen Obama on the news once today.
Posted by BornFreeorDie

Yeah, I would imagine that would be a sore spot for you, to see President Obama where he is today and you being where you are(a loser), in comparison, I'm sure that makes you feel like a total failure in life. I guess what mommy and daddy told you about you being superior to others was totally wrong and really set you up for this really big let down.