Intelligence Lacking: More Cherry Picking From Dick Cheney

Former Vice President, Dick Cheney, was at it again last Sunday. He adamantly vocalized his disapproval of President Obama’s national security policy, and was incredulous about the idea that Bush Administration officials should be investigated for their treatment of enemy combatants. Of course, Cheney has every right to voice his opinion in these matters, though such criticism from a former VP is highly unusual. However, considering the Bush Administration’s past behavior in politicizing traditionally non-political government entities, how are the claims of Dick Cheney, in any way, credible?

On last Sunday’s Face the Nation, one of Cheney’s statements deserved more scrutiny than the 30 min. program allowed:

One of the things that I did six weeks ago was I made a request that two memos that I personally know of, written by the CIA, that lay out the successes of those policies and point out in considerable detail all of — all that we were able to achieve by virtue of those policies, that those memos be released, be made public.

First of all, the “two memos… that lay out the successes of those policies,” couldn’t possibly discount that torturing detainees enhanced the ability of terrorists to recruit new supporters. So, even if the memos in question reveal productive results, those results were, at best, a push when considering the policy’s impact on US national security.

Second, and more importantly, how can two memos vindicate policies that were in clear violation of prescriptions within the Geneva Conventions and the UN Convention Against Torture? Jeremy Scahill summed up why the policies can’t be excused, particularly as they apply to the latter, “This is a matter of law and US obligations to its international treaties, which the Constitution explicitly states the US will respect and enforce.” The memos, even if they support what Cheney suggests, are illustrative of a policy that was blatantly illegal.

Finally, consider the behavior of Dick Cheney and others in the run up to the Iraq invasion. There is a pattern of deceptive practices by Bush officials in shaping policies and intelligence to fit their goals. The Office of Special Plans (OSP) is an instructive example. Jason Leopold, presently of ThePublicRecord.org, reported for Truthout.org in 2007:

The Office of Special Plans routinely provided President Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney and Condoleezza Rice, who headed the National Security Council at the time, with questionable intelligence information on the Iraqi threat. Much of that information was included in various speeches by Bush and Cheney, and some was never vetted for accuracy by career CIA analysts…

…Patrick Lang, a former director of Middle East analysis at the Defense Intelligence Agency, said in an interview with the New Yorker in May 2003 that the Office of Special Plans “started picking out things that supported their thesis and stringing them into arguments that they could use with the president. It’s not intelligence. It’s political propaganda.”

The OSP was developed by Donald Rumsfeld out of frustration regarding the lack of actionable intelligence on Iraq’s capabilities and intentions. Headed by Douglas Feith — whom Gen. Tommy Franks once referred to as the “Dumbest MF’er on the planet” — the OSP did not gather new intelligence. Rather, the Department of Defense office reinterpreted existing data, cherry-picking and restating evidence to support the invasion of Iraq. When Dick Cheney insists upon a link between Al Qaida and Saddam Hussein, the OSP is the source of his evidence. Of course, we now know there was no such link.

This is merely one example, but when considered along with Cheney’s insistence that waterboarding “worked” and “kept us safe,” how can he be taken seriously? Let me know what you think.

Personally, I wouldn’t put it past Cheney to contort evidence to fit his narrative. It is entirely plausible that, in calling for the release of the two CIA memos, the former Vice President is cherry-picking evidence just as he did before the invasion of Iraq. Further, it is more than plausible, as was indicated today by FBI agent, Ali Soufan, in his testimony before Congress that the interrogation methods DO NOT WORK. Soufan said the harsh techniques were “ineffective, slow and unreliable and as a result, harmful to our efforts to defeat al-Qaida.”:

When the past actions of Dick Cheney are considered along with his present public statements, it is entirely possible that torture was employed, not to discover a link between Al Qaida and Iraq, but to create one.

Image: Flickr User - World Economic Forum, by way of CreativeCommons.org

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Tarcisio P.

9:11AM PST on Feb 25, 2010

A team of PHR doctors authored the new white paper, Aiding Torture: Health Professionals' Ethics and Human Rights Violations Demonstrated in the May 2004 Inspector General's Report. The report details how the CIA relied on medical expertise to rationalize and carry out abusive and unlawful interrogations.

from

http://physiciansforhumanrights.org/l

send a green star

9:09AM PST on Feb 25, 2010

yes, go there

http://physiciansforhumanrights.org/

Christian R.

7:30AM PDT on Jun 11, 2009

The entire "Revisionist History Tour" of the Cheney family is purely a publicity stunt to help Liz Cheney get elected to public office. We need to put a stop to this as soon as possible, and counter the innumerable lies of the Cheneys with facts and facts and facts until they slink off or are held accountable by Congress and punished for their many crimes against humanity, including war crimes. Cheney should *not* be allowed to host heads of state at his home like some political leader. Let's prevent him from doing so. He has the right to lie, and we have the right to jail him for his lies and his breach of the oath of office to defend this country. I say jail time for Cheney, and disgrace on the entire family. I saw take away his right to make money from his memoirs. No Cheney version of Mein Kampf, thank you. At least Nixon had the decency to keep his mouth shut after trashing the country. Cheney makes Nixon seem like a saint.

AJ H.

6:48AM PDT on May 29, 2009

Pete N:
Not committed by U.S. soldiers, you say? Here's some information to expand your mental horizons:
Investigations of Homicides of Prisoners of War in Iraq and Afghanistan
Steven H. Miles, MD, Professor of Medicine and Bioethics
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1681676

Autopsy reports reveal homicides of detainees in U.S. custody
Official Army autopsy reports obtained via FOIA by the ACLU.
http://action.aclu.org/torturefoia/released/102405/

BTW: you folks on the right always try to fall back on critiques of Clinton or his administration, as if that means anything. It doesn't. Even if Clinton had run the same kind of illegal kidnapping and torture program that the Bush administration ran (He didn't.) it wouldn't exonerate Bush and Cheney in the least. Most liberals aren't that fond of Clinton anyway. Same goes for Pelosi, although I assume you're aware, if she'd revealed anything at all about the briefings she supposedly had, it would have made her vulnerable to felony prosecution. You need to learn a little bit about the facts, before you spout off right wing talking points.
Meanwhile keep your eye on CSPAN. Leahy and Whitehouse are holding hearings that should blow the cover off the entire sordid Bush/Cheney torture ring. With any luck, we can put Rumsfeld, Cheney, and the rest in adjacent cells.

Pete N.

10:10AM PDT on May 15, 2009

Thanks for the link... I will honesstly check it out...

BUTT... if it was done, it was not by US SOLDIERS... most likely foreign intelligence working with us...

10:03AM PDT on May 15, 2009

TB.. name calling zealot...

Look again KBR has not been a sub of Halliburton for some time now?? They WERE a subsidiary of Halliburton from 1998 to 2007

BTW YOU CONVENIENTLY Avoided MY FACTS about KBR under BUBBA!!! LOL

Teresa B.

10:01AM PDT on May 15, 2009

physiciansforhumanrights.org

10:00AM PDT on May 15, 2009

Go to the physicions for human rights Pete N. They interviewed these detainees and gave them physicals and found the medical evidence to back it all up. They are medical doctors you moron. You're the clueless one. I have in my possesion the document on their findings dumbass. Because I am smarter than to listen to liars. I searched for the truth. I don't listen to politicions. they are liars. Go see for yourself. If you dare. It isn't democrat or republican. They are both corrupt & controlled by corrupt. You're a fool if you think otherwise. Peolosi is a criminal. And Rove and Gengrich. And the list goes on. You should research for the truth or just shut up. Because at this point you are beyond uninformed.

IF your so-called DOCtored info was true, it would have made Prime time news and carried by PMSNBC to this day!!

Believe me... I am FAR from ill-informed...

I suppose you believe everything you read??