PALIN'S A FEMALE DICK CHENEY: Representing All That Is EVIL In
America!
"Cheney Linked Hussein to Al-Qaeda, Ex-GOP House Leader Says in Book"
Tuesday, September 16, 2008; A19
A GOP congressional leader who was wavering on giving President Bush
the authority to wage war in late 2002 said Vice President Cheney
misled him by saying that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had direct
personal ties to al-Qaeda terrorists and was making rapid progress
toward a suitcase nuclear weapon, according to a new book by
Washington Post investigative reporter Barton Gellman.
Cheney's assertions, described by former House majority leader Richard
K. Armey (Tex.), came in a highly classified one-on-one briefing in
Room H-208, the vice president's hideaway office in the Capitol. The
threat Cheney described went far beyond public statements that have
been criticized for relying on "cherry-picked" intelligence of unknown
reliability. There was no intelligence to support the vice president's
private assertions, Gellman reports, and they "crossed so far beyond
the known universe of fact that they were simply without foundation."
Armey had spoken out against the coming war, and his opposition gave
cover to Democrats who feared the political costs of appearing to be
weak. Armey reversed his position after Cheney told him, he said, that
the threat from Iraq was actually " more imminent than we want to
portray to the public at large."
Cheney said, according to Armey, that Iraq's "ability to miniaturize
weapons of mass destruction, particularly nuclear," had been
"substantially refined since the first Gulf War," and would soon
result in "packages that could be moved even by ground personnel."
Cheney linked that threat to Hussein's alleged ties to al-Qaeda, Armey
said, explaining that "we now know they have the ability to develop
these weapons in a very portable fashion, and they have a delivery
system in their relationship with organizations such as al-Qaeda."
"Did Dick Cheney . . . purposely tell me things he knew to be untrue?"
Armey said. "I seriously feel that may be the case. . . . Had I known
or believed then what I believe now, I would have publicly opposed
[the war] resolution right to the bitter end, and I believe I might
have stopped it from happening."
-- Jeff Leen
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/15/AR2008091503064....
--------------- [more along the sames lines] ---------------
"Standing Up to Angler"
"A group of administration officials took on the vice president to
defend the rule of law on surveillance."
Editorial
Tuesday, September 16, 2008; A20
A SERIES by The Post's Barton Gellman, "Angler: The Cheney Vice
Presidency," offers shocking new details on the unprecedented
influence exerted in the Bush administration by Vice President Cheney,
especially on national security matters.
The two-part series, adapted from Mr. Gellman's forthcoming book by
the same name, focuses on the March 2004 efforts by Mr. Cheney and his
aide, David S. Addington, to win reauthorization for a top-secret
warrantless wiretapping program. It chronicles the last days of what
had been their months-long fight against Justice Department officials
who had grudgingly but emphatically come to the conclusion that the
program, as configured, was illegal. James B. Comey was acting
attorney general during this time, when Attorney General John D.
Ashcroft was hospitalized.
The most startling revelation is that President Bush apparently was
unaware -- until the day after he signed off on the program's renewal
-- of any opposition inside the Justice Department. He was also
apparently in the dark about the number of officials who were poised
to resign in protest. The list included Mr. Ashcroft, Mr. Comey,
Office of Legal Counsel chief Jack L. Goldsmith, Justice Department
national security expert Patrick F. Philbin, Criminal Division chief
Christopher A. Wray, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, FBI general
counsel Valerie E. Caproni and CIA general counsel Scott W. Mueller.
Neither Mr. Cheney nor then-White House Counsel Alberto R. Gonzales or
then-White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. bothered to tell
the president of the looming resignations. Instead, they tried to
persuade the ailing Mr. Ashcroft to sign the reauthorization from his
hospital bed. When that failed, they argued that the president,
relying on his powers as commander in chief, could unilaterally
reauthorize the program. It took an intervention by Condoleezza Rice,
then national security adviser, to inform the president about the
possible departures and urge him to speak with Justice Department
officials directly. Mr. Bush ultimately agreed to the legal changes
that Mr. Comey and his allies deemed necessary.
While we acknowledge that Mr. Cheney and Mr. Addington believed
strongly in the need to preserve the wiretapping program, their
refusal to work within the administration to bring the program into
legal compliance was inexcusable. The Justice Department officials and
others were as hawkish on national security as the vice president and
his aide were. They, too, were gravely concerned about the harm that
might befall the country without such an operation. But they saw no
contradiction in protecting the country while also being loyal to the
rule of law. And despite withering pressure from the White House and
the potential harm to their own careers, they had the courage to stand
firm on that principle.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/15/AR2008091502704....
