Cheney asserts his alibi

Former Vice President Dick “There is No Doubt that Saddam Hussein Now Has Weapons of Mass Destruction” Cheney has just released a book entitled In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir. The reviews thus far have not been kind. Many, including Colin Powell’s former chief of staff Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, feel as though it’s nothing more than a blatant attempt to obfuscate the truth, in hopes of making a future war crimes trial less likely. Following, by way of background, is a clip from a new piece on Cheney by author William Rivers Pitt, followed by an excerpt from an MSNBC article on Col. Wilkinson’s view of the memoir.

First, we have this from William Rivers Pitt.

…Alas, the generations to come will be forced to reckon with one of the great and lasting failures of the Obama administration: the simple, unbelievable fact of Dick Cheney’s continued freedom. He and his ilk committed enough brazen crimes to keep a brace of federal prosecutors busy for the next twenty-five years, and yet Mr. Cheney remains unmolested by the system of law he so vigorously disdained. According to Wikileaks, not only has the Obama administration failed to seek a reckoning with Cheney, they worked vigorously behind the scenes to ensure that no such reckoning will ever come to pass.

And so we have Dick, and his book, and yet another hard lesson on the absence of justice. He’ll make a few bucks off the thing, which he can bank next to the obscene millions he gained through his nefarious Halliburton war profiteering. He was still getting paid by Halliburton while in office. Remember that? They called it a “deferred retirement benefit,” an annual check with six zeroes to the left of the decimal, and all the while Cheney was steering your tax dollars into Halliburton’s coffers with a blizzard of bald-faced lies about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

There is so much to remember about Dick Cheney’s time in office. There was the Office of Special Plans, which he created to formulate the most effective lies possible about Iraq, WMD, and connections to September 11. There was the torture in Abu Ghraib and elsewhere, which he referred to as “the dark side” and which he championed with great vigor. There was his dismissal of lawfully-issued congressional subpoenas, and his dedication to the idea of a “Unitary Executive” which is beholden to nothing and no one. There was his broad plan to spy on millions of Americans without a warrant, which he wanted to continue even after the whole thing was declared to be illegal. There was (and remains) the program of indefinite detention without due process of law, which was his baby, and there was the coddling of known criminal and double-agent Ahmed Chalabi, who was his pal.

There was all this, and so much more besides, but one incident stands out in my mind above all else. It was only an accent in the symphony of wrongdoing Cheney directed from his office, and was barely noticed at the time, but I will never forget it.

It was a simple thing, really: the National Archives, by dint of two different federal laws, annually collects the official papers of the Executive Branch for the edification of future historians, researchers and government officials. It is a by-rote requirement, one small cog in the wheelworks of government, but not this time.

Dick Cheney said no. No, you cannot have any papers from the office of the Vice President, and for one reason: the office of the Vice President, because I say so, is not part of the Executive Branch…

But who needs his official papers when we have a memoir explaining what really happened, right?

And now here’s that clip from the MSNBC piece on the perspective of Col. Lawrence Wilkerson.

…Dick Cheney was “president for all practical purposes” during George W. Bush’s first term in office and “fears being tried as a war criminal,” according to Colin Powell’s chief of staff during his time as secretary of state.

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, who has known Cheney for decades, told ABC News that Cheney was a “very vindictive person”…

“I think he’s just trying to, one, assert himself so he’s not in some subsequent time period tried for war crimes and, second, so that he somehow vindicates himself because he feels like he needs vindication. That in itself tells you something about him,” he added…

Wilkerson claimed that Powell was misled by Cheney and the CIA’s director of central intelligence, George Tenet, before giving his key address on Iraq to the United Nations, during the run-up to the war.

“[Cheney] had been out there [to the CIA] a dozen times to put his personal imprint on George Tenet, John McLaughlin and others so that they would know positively what he wanted, and what he wanted was war with Iraq,” Wilkerson said….

“He wanted desperately to be president of the United States… he knew the Texas governor was not steeped in anything but baseball, so he knew he was going to be president and I think he got his dream. He was president for all practical purposes for the first term of the Bush administration”…

I’d like to agree with Wilkerson as to Cheney’s motive for releasing the memoir, but I think that Cheney knows full well that he’s not in any danger of prosecution. I think that this, more likely, is just him thumbing his nose at those of us who feel that he should be put away. But, maybe, in spite of the bad heart, he intends to live beyond the Obama administration and into that of Elizabeth Warren (by feasting on the healthy hearts of innocent children, no doubt). If that’s the case, maybe he is doing this in order to further obfuscate the facts, and make a war crimes trial less likely. Personally, I think that, when Obama was first elected, Cheney thought that his number was up. I think that’s why he showed up to the inauguration in a wheel chair, looking old and frail. I think he really believed that he was going to be called before a Congressional commission, and he wanted to start perpetrating the ruse that he was, in fact, a tired and sick old man, like former Egyptian president Hosni Mobarak, and so many unseated dictators before him have done… And now, he’s just having fun, scurrying around in the sunshine, knowing that we won’t do a goddamned thing to stop him.

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9 Comments

  1. Posted September 1, 2011 at 6:44 am | Permalink

    This guy is so eerie. Did you guys see the interview he did were he took his battery out of his roboheart and it started beeping loudly. This guy is kept alive by machines like Darth Vader so his evil can live another unnatural 10-15 years. I hate him.

  2. Edward
    Posted September 1, 2011 at 7:28 am | Permalink

    I’m torn on this. I’d like to be pissed at Obama for not pursuing his crimes in court, but I realize that it would have probably been a huge diversion at a time when we really needed to get the country back on track. Ultimately, though, I think it probably would have been best if he’d have done something decisive on the matter, and at least called for an inquiry. In the long term, I think that would have been best for the country.

  3. Posted September 1, 2011 at 7:38 am | Permalink

    I’m not one to advocate senseless violence. Having said that, this ass-shine is on my “rip off head shit down neck put head on pole as warning to others” list. Just looking at him inspires a hatred in me that I’m not really sure I can explain. Seriously. My heart rate is up and my normally 100/60 blood pressure is probably up a few points. Must calm down now.

  4. Posted September 1, 2011 at 8:18 am | Permalink

    Cheney should be tried by the International Criminal Court at the Hague. However, the United States does not recognize it. The other countries that also refuse to cooperate with the court are China, Libya, Qatar, Yemen, Israel and Iraq. I guess those are our ideological allies.

  5. Eel
    Posted September 1, 2011 at 9:56 am | Permalink

    If the book pisses you off, wait until you hear the record he’s doing with Jack White.

  6. Brainless
    Posted September 1, 2011 at 2:15 pm | Permalink

    “…it would have probably been a huge diversion at a time when we really needed to get the country back on track.”

    “back on track” = Enforcing our laws. So, he did exactly the opposite of that. Good show.

  7. Bob K
    Posted September 1, 2011 at 3:42 pm | Permalink

    As they used to say in the Watergate times, “Don’t buy books from crooks”.

  8. TaterSalad
    Posted September 5, 2011 at 4:13 pm | Permalink

    Barack Obama is an empty shell of a human along with being a narcissistic, self centered ruler of America. He thinks he is above the law. How things have “changed” since his election days when he was telling us that war was bad, GWB was bad and destructive, didn’t have permission for this and that, transparency during the healtcare debate BS and now he is doing the exact thing. That my friends is a hypocrite, plain and simple. This self centered President and his agenda has hurt America at a time when it was “vunerable” and he has taken us to the lowest point of possible survival as a free nation.

    http://wizbangblog.com/content/2011/06/18/the-smartest-man-in-the-room.php

    http://therealrevo.com/blog/?p=54821

    “Everything Obama does comes straight from the most stilted and destructive clichĂ©s of the left. The man has never had an original idea in his life, and wouldn’t recognize one if it were served up on a plate with arugula. He is intellectually locked in concrete.”

  9. Code Red
    Posted January 27, 2015 at 12:15 am | Permalink

    Dick Cheney has a Thrilling Addiction To The Most Dangerous Game “Human Hunting” Mind Control Sex slaves, Tha he likes to Traumatize them to a point where they have no mind of their own. It’s is beyond belief to what Dick Cheney and other High Officials in The White House are involved in, Accordance with Our Military Bases( involving our most highet officials CIA) who would believe such outrageous accusations when 95% of America will never believe such a thing because unfortunately many choose to be in Denial. These Officials are working through many agency’s (DO YOUR HOMEWORK AMERICA!! ) and other officials Vatican is a contributor to there agenda in taking control over Humanity. I was raised catholic went to parochial school my entire life, and had many peers among myself that were not Catholic Nor was I ever influenced into other beliefs or religion I have always been a think for myself person base my decessions on facts! Recently I denounce myself from the church for reasons that are far to lengthy to disclose with all of this said Satan is in power with these high official in all branches of our governments and as well as other religions Mormons as well as many others, (DO YOUR HOMEWORK AMERICA!)

    THE CONSTITUTION OF AMERICA NO LONGER STANDS FOR THE PEOPLEi. For Americans our Freedom of Justice and Liberty for all has its limitations, Thus in saying all of this, The obvious and Truth being, Is Our National security Act has been Interpreted Not to guard the integrity of Military Secrets, but Instead to Protect the Criminal Activity of a Higher Order!! DONT BELIEVE WHAT IM SAYING OR WHAT ANYBODY TELLS YOU, CHOOSE YOUR SOURCES CAREFULLY AND DO YOUR OWN HOMEWORK!! It’s time for Americans to take back our country!!! IN GOD WE TRUST!!

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