Scared Cheney puts his head in the noose -- Andrew Sullivan »
Posted By berkeley 10 months, 2 weeks ago in Political NewsSo what was Cheney thinking? My guess is that he fears he is in trouble. This fear has been created by Obama, but indirectly. Obama has declined to launch a prosecution of Cheney for war crimes, as many in his party (and outside it) would like. He has set up a review of detention, rendition and interrogation policies. And he has simply declassified many of the infamous torture memos kept under wraps by Bush.
He has the power to do this, and much of the time it is in response to outside requests. But as the memos have emerged, the awful truth of what Cheney actually authorised becomes harder and harder to deny. And Cheney is desperately trying to maintain a grip on the narrative before it grips him by the throat.
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berkeley
If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. Of all the enemies to public ...
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gamahuche10 months, 2 weeks ago
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Cheney deserves to be running scared.
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I suspect that it won't be long before he disappears to S. America but I also wouldn't be surprised to see him brought back again, perhaps in leg-irons. His strategy of defence through attack is obviously all he knows; hoist with his own petard is the only expression that I know which succinctly encapsulates his current and future predicament.Though the phrase FTA that defines Cheney as "desperately trying to maintain a grip on the narrative before it grips him by the throat" is not half bad either..
And FTEA [E for excellent]
This is what Cheney is desperate to avoid. It is unclear whether he will actually ever be prosecuted, but the facts of his record will wend their way inexorably into the sunlight. That means he could become a pariah. Even though the CIA actively destroyed the videotapes of torture sessions, it could not destroy the legal and administrative record now available to the new administration.
So Cheney is reduced to asserting that what he did saved countless lives and averted many plots. He is reduced to asserting the same Manichean view of the world that gave us Guantanamo, Bagram and the Iraq war: fighting terrorism is “a tough mean, dirty, nasty business”, he told Polit-ico, an American political website. “These are evil people. And we’re not going to win this fight by turning the other cheek.”
But no one is urging that we turn the other cheek: they are simply saying the West has to obey the laws of war and the rule of law in its battle against jihadist terrorism. By coming out so forcefully and so publicly so soon after he left office, Cheney is intent on asserting that the torture programme he set up was legal, moral and defensible. Like many of Obama’s former foes, he may come to regret making that move in his own defence.
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Another excellent story, b!-
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Beau789010 months, 2 weeks ago
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I don't really think Cheney is scared. He's mean, bitter, venal, petty, arrogant, sadistic and megalomaniacal--that doesn't fit with the profile of one who's worried. (He can always move to Dubai where his Halliburton pals are and where there is no extradition treaty.)
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But I always thought he was smart, in a Machiavellian kind of way--so I'm surprised he's baiting Obama to investigate him. -
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hyperbola10 months, 2 weeks ago
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No place left in South America for Cheney to flee to. The bushie investments in land in Paraguay as a hideout became non-viable when Paraguayans elected a progressive government in place of the military semi-dictatorship we had been supporting for 40 years.
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PsychoHosebeastComment removed: Spammer, Abusive1 Reply
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hamy10 months, 2 weeks ago
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Cheney is an evil old man. Karma will destroy his health the way that he authorized the torture and murder of hundreds of innocent men, women and children. All I really want is for people to stop talking about charging him for his crimes and actually do it. Dennis Kucinich is the only man with the balls enough to actually do something about the war on our values and rights. That shouldn't be.
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hyperbola10 months, 2 weeks ago
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Well, the Obama adminstration seems to be mostly about "new rhetoric" rather than restoring american democracy, so probably you are right.
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Obama's Nightmare in Iraq
With last week's announced escalation of the war in Afghanistan, including an Iraq-like "surge" replete with 4,000 more U.S. troops and a sizable increase in private contractors, President Barack Obama blew the lid off of any lingering perceptions that he somehow represents a significant change in how the U.S. conducts its foreign policy.
In the meantime, more reports have emerged that bolster suspicions that Obama's Iraq policy is but a downsized version of Bush's and that a total withdrawal of U.S. forces is not on the horizon.... In the latest episode of Occupation Rebranded, it was revealed that the administration intends to reclassify some combat forces as "advisory and assistance brigades." While Obama's administration is officially shunning the use of the term "global war on terror," the labels du jour, unfortunately, seem to be the biggest changes we will see for some time.
While Obama -- and public attention -- shifted foreign policy focus last week to Afghanistan, lost in the media blitz was another important report that examines how taxpayers will continue to pay for the Iraq occupation for years to come, withdrawal or not. This report, released in March by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, provides a sobering look at Obama's "massive and expensive" Iraq plan, identifying several crucial questions that have yet to be addressed.
...Among the questions the Obama administration has yet to answer: How to dismantle or hand over the 283 U.S. installations in Iraq (including more than 50 large military bases); What to do with the 160,000-plus private U.S. contractors in Iraq; Who will provide security for the massive -- and likely expanding -- army of diplomats deployed in the country at the monstrous U.S. embassy in Baghdad?
...It is very hard to imagine that the U.S. will simply walk away from large bases it spent years building. So, will they be turned over to Iraq? If so, to whom? What guarantee is there that they would not be used as operating bases for death squads? Will some be destroyed? What about the environmental impact?
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NoWayMan10 months, 2 weeks ago
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I think Cheney is a bit nervous about this whole war crimes thing. if he's not then he's keenly unaware of what's happening. and I don't think cheney is unaware of whats happening.
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he knows Obama is an analytical, deliberate, patient guy who is also a lawyer by training. he knows Obama knows how to go about gathering information and building a case. and he now knows Obama won't be goaded into a public fight.
he also knows the entire planet hates hates hates him.
is Cheney scared? he should be.
Obama does have his eyes set on him. we'll see what Obama does after he gets through this first round of cleaning up the GOPs mess.
cause if the tide of public opinion rises to match the information being gathered, Obama will decide to go forward with the prosecution of dick cheney, and we all know Obama won't pursue this unless he knows he's going to win.
and if this is Obama's determination, he will then proceed to bury cheney with the cold, steady hand of an assassin.
and it'll be f*cking sweet. -
TcarosComment removed: Hard Banned
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