Tag: Richard Cheney

Whenever I read a piece like the one last night from McClatchy News Service, “Cheney’s speech contained omissions, misstatements”,  I often wonder where they’ve been for the last 8 years, pre-Obama? To its credit though, McClatchy had far better reporting going on than AP and Reuters during the Bush years. This one is just scorching… HOT! It’s the kind of reporting we all lusted after, but never got, while Cheney was in office.

Cheney said that “the key to any strategy is accurate intelligence,” but the Bush administration ignored warnings from experts in the CIA , the Defense Intelligence Agency , the State Department , the Department of Energy and other agencies, and used false or exaggerated intelligence supplied by Iraqi exile groups and others to help make its case for the 2003 invasion.

I envision Yosemite Sam, right after Bugs blows him up with gunpowder or something, still smoldering.

– Cheney said that only “ruthless enemies of this country” were detained by U.S. operatives overseas and taken to secret U.S. prisons.

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.

This piece, written by reporters Jonathan S. Landay and Warren P. Strobel, is to be applauded. It’s nice to see some media not afraid of Dick Cheney.

There’s so much more at the link. For your viewing pleasure (don’t miss it!):

http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclat…

A truth and reconciliation commission for

seeking answers so that we can develop a shared understanding of the failures of the recent past.

will not achieve your objective to

make sure they never happen again

unless the Department of Justice is allowed to pursue justice aggressively.

Since J. Edgar Hoover began illegal FBI surveillance of American citizens in the 1950’s we have had repeated violations of basic Constitutional rights by the government followed by investigations by commissions. However, because no one in the government suffered any consequences for their actions the violations not only continued, they have grown worse. Justice must be pursued and laws protecting citizens’ Constitutional rights must be enforced to stop the violations. J Edgar Hoover and Joseph McCarthy abused the power of the FBI to keep files on congress and private citizens using the ruse of the red scare. McCarthy was censured and driven from the Senate but only the victims of his abuse suffered real punishment. J. Edgar Hoover continued his abuses of power, keeping files on Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders.