I have never been a big fan of Dick Cheney, but now I like him. His likability numbers have gone way up in my book. Pres. Obama recently approved sensitive CIA papers documenting ‘enhanced interrogation’ to be released to the public. Finally a Republican called him on it and that man would be Dick Cheney. I always thought that the Bush administration should have defended itself, but they never did. Now, Dick Cheney and Karl Rove are out there saying wait a minute, this is what happened and why. I wonder if this would have happened before, would we have someone different in the White House? Yesterday, both the President and Dick Cheney spoke. Below is what they had to say about enhanced interrogation techniques and the release of classified information.
President Obama:
“I banned the use of so-called enhanced interrogation techniques by the United States of America. I know some have argued that brutal methods like water-boarding were necessary to keep us safe. I could not disagree more. As commander-in-chief, I see the intelligence, I bear responsibility for keeping this country safe and I reject the assertion that these are the most effective means of interrogation. What’s more, they undermine the rule of law.
“They alienate us in the world. They serve as a recruitment tool for terrorists, and increase the will of our enemies to fight us, while decreasing the will of others to work with America. They risk the lives of our troops by making it less likely that others will surrender to them in battle and more likely that Americans will be mistreated if they are captured. In short, they did not advance our war and counter-terrorism efforts — they undermined them, and that is why I ended them once and for all.”
Former Vice President Dick Cheney:
“I was and remain a strong proponent of our enhanced interrogation program. The interrogations were used on hardened terrorists after other efforts failed. They were legal, essential, justified, successful and the right thing to do. The intelligence officers who questioned the terrorists can be proud of their work and proud of the results, because they prevented the violent death of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of innocent people.
“Another term out there that slipped into the discussion is the notion that American interrogation practices were a “recruitment tool” for the enemy. On this theory, by the tough questioning of killers, we have supposedly fallen short of our own values. This recruitment-tool theory has become something of a mantra lately, including from the President himself. And after a familiar fashion, it excuses the violent and blames America for the evil that others do. It’s another version of that same old refrain from the Left, “We brought it on ourselves.”
“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. Nor are terrorists or those who see them as victims exactly the best judges of America’s moral standards, one way or the other.”
The Release of Classified Information
President Obama:
“The argument that somehow by releasing those memos, we are providing terrorists with information about how they will be interrogated is unfounded — we will not be interrogating terrorists using that approach, because that approach is now prohibited. In short, I released these memos because there was no overriding reason to protect them. And the ensuing debate has helped the American people better understand how these interrogation methods came to be authorized and used.
Former Vice President Cheney:
“Somehow, when the soul-searching was done and the veil was lifted on the policies of the Bush administration, the public was given less than half the truth. The released memos were carefully redacted to leave out references to what our government learned through the methods in question. Other memos, laying out specific terrorist plots that were averted, apparently were not even considered for release. For reasons the administration has yet to explain, they believe the public has a right to know the method of the questions, but not the content of the answers.”
I am so glad that finally someone has stood up and said enough is enough. Get the facts straight. We need more people blowing the whistle on this administration and stop the fawning that continues to happen in the media. Go, Cheney, Go!
Read more: “Full transcript: Dick Cheney’s speech to the American Enterprise Institute – Politico Staff – POLITICO.com” – http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/22823_Page4.html#ixzz0GFscB6XS&A