Cheney Lashes Out Again at Obama

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright October 3, 2011
All Rights Reserved.                                         

           Blasting President Barack Obama for his criticism of the Bush administration, former Vice Presdient Dick Cheney continued to hurl barbs at his critics found in his recent memoir “In My Time.”  Cheney praised Obama for taking down American-born, Yemen-based al-Qaeda chief propagandist Anwar al-Awlaki Sept. 30.  Cheney railed about Barack’s past criticism of Guantanamo Bay and enhanced interrogation techniques, including now banned waterboarding.  If Cheney recalls, Barack’s criticism had less to do with going after legitimate terrorists and more to do with the his decision to cherry-pick the nation’s intelligence to justify the Iraq War.  Bush’s eight years of stepped up military activities to deal with terrorism didn’t land Osama bin Laden.  When Barack ordered the clandestine mission that killed Osama bin Laden May 1, he burnished his counterterrorism credentials.

            Cheney’s criticism stemmed from Obama correctly pointing out that all the circumstances surrounding the Iraq War didn’t add up.  U.N. Chief weapons inspector Sweden’s Dr. Hans Blix begged the White House to give his U.N. team more time to rule out Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction.  Cheney had Secretary of State Colin A. Powell present his case for Saddam’s arsenal of WND to the U.N. Security Council Feb. 5, 2003.  To this day, Powell felt duped by Cheney, whose neocon friends at the Pentagon’s Office of Special Plans [OSP], led by Douglas J. Feith Jr., insisted Saddam had mobile germ weapons laboratories.  When post-war inspectors turned up no WMD, the White House was forced to admit it made a mistake.  Bush, Cheney, Powell and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice all insisted that Saddam possessed weapons of mass destruction.

            Obama thought controversial activities at Guantanamo Bay produced less actionable intelligence and more bad publicity for the United States.  “I think it was a very good strike,” said Cheney, praising Obama for getting al-Awlaki.  But “I’m waiting for the administration to go back and correct something they said two years ago when they criticized us for ‘overreaching’ to the events of Sept. 11.”  Cheney’s “overreaching” involves Obama’s criticism about Cheney’s secrecy meeting with oil executives before launching wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.  Barack’s “overreaching” involved Cheney’s involvement with his Chief of Staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby’s outing of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame.  Her husband, former Iraq Ambassador Joe Wilson, criticized the White House for insisting in Bush’s 2003 State of the Union speech that Saddam Hussein tried to buy “yellocake” uranium from Niger. 

            Cheney insisted that Obama said “in effect we walked away from [America’s] ideals,” with respect to treating terrorists in U.S. detention.  “I think he did tremendous damage.  I think he slandered the nation and I think he owes an Apology to the American people,” hurling more barbs during an election year.  Cheney’s salvos detour from his culpability in the Valerie Plame affair, where Libby was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice March 6, 2007.  No one believes that Libby outed Plame’s identity to Deputy Defense Secretary Richard Armitage who, in turn, told the late columnist Bob Novak, without Cheney’s orders and blessings.  While Bush commuted Libby’s jail sentence July 2, 2007, he still has a permanent felony on his record.  Cheney’s likes to point fingers and ask for apologies but never admits his mistakes.  Obama’s past criticism hardly warrants Cheney’s barbs.

            Barack has his own critics on the left and those right wing opportunists like GOP presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) who blasted the president for targeting al-Qaeda terrorists like al-Awlaki.   Paul doesn’t see his hypocrisy in criticizing Barack for targeting terrorists, as if any al-Qaeda member, domestic or foreign, deserves anything other than targeted assassination.  Paul gave his blessings to the Bush administration on its terrorist polices but reserves his criticism for Barack.  “I don’t think the Obama administration should be repeating” the mistakes of the Bush White House said Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.).  “I think the debate about the legal grounds for counterterrorism strategy should be more in the open,” said Harman, urging more transparency.  Harman was critical of the Bush administration skirting the Geneva Convention by defining terrorists as enemy or illegal combatants, not requiring any legal rights or protections.

            Before former Vice President Dick Cheney throws stones at others, he needs to own up what he did to his chief of staff and how he cherry-picked intelligence in the lead up to the Iraq War.  Obama’s criticsm stemmed not from Cheney protecting U.S. national security but from detouring away from reliable sources of intel and allowing the Pentagon’s Office of Special Plans to dictate U.S. foreign policy.  Barack doesn’t owe Cheney an apology.  Cheney owes the American public an explanation how he could have gotten the intel so wrong.  All indications point to cherry-picking intel from his neocon friends at the OSP.  Cheney ignored all credible sources of intel including the CIA, MI6 and German intelligence, all didn’t believe Saddam possessed WMD.   Obama’s mild criticisms hardly warrant any public apology:  The one owing an apology is still making excuses and accusations.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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