Cheney distorts Iran intelligence.
In an interview with ABC News today, Vice President Cheney said that Iran has perhaps resumed its program to develop a nuclear weapon:
”What it (the NIE) says is that they have definitely had in the past a program to develop a nuclear warhead; that it would appear that they stopped that weaponization process in 2003. We don’t know whether or not they’ve restarted,” he said.
”What we do know is that they had then, and have now, a process by which they’re trying to enrich uranium, which is the key obstacle they’ve got to overcome in order to have a nuclear weapon,” he added. ”They’ve been working at it for years.”
What Cheney failed to mention is that the NIE also stated that “Tehran had not restarted its nuclear weapons program as of mid-2007” and is “less determined to develop nuclear weapons than we have been judging since 2005.”
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I swear, I hate that evil, ugly, warmongering heartless old barstid.
March 19th, 2008 at 3:13 pmIn an interview with ABC News today, Vice President Cheney said that Iran has perhaps resumed its program to develop a nuclear weapon:
Didn’t we hear this one already? Oh, no, that was Iraq. With a Q.
Damn, I swear this administration is worse than Andrew Lloyd Webber. All of their songs sound exactly the same.
March 19th, 2008 at 3:15 pmEveryone: Mr. Vice President, the NIE says etc etc etc.
March 19th, 2008 at 3:20 pmCheney: So?
2/3s of Americans: Get out of Iraq
Cheney: So?
2/3s of Iraqis: America, get out of Iraq
March 19th, 2008 at 3:21 pmCheney: So?
Well we would know what Iran was doing execpt you outed Valerie Plame.
March 19th, 2008 at 3:21 pmUse of the royal “we” natch.
March 19th, 2008 at 3:23 pmStupidity, out of jealousy, always tries to get one up on intelligence.
March 19th, 2008 at 3:24 pmA poll shows as of Feb 6-10 Cheney’s approval rating stands at 22%
Cheney: So?
March 19th, 2008 at 3:26 pmI’m sure this creep has absolutely no sex life (surprise, surprise), otherwise, he wouldn’t be so hot to have another war to send more American’s off to fight in to get his rocks off.
March 19th, 2008 at 3:27 pmSomeone: Mr. Cheney, the vast majority of the world thinks you are evil incarnate.
Cheney: So? Ahem, oh, that. Well I guess all I can say is thanks, I try.
March 19th, 2008 at 3:27 pmWhat’s this all about
AP - Cheney Goes Fishing in the Gulf of Oman Yesterday
He borrowed the Sultan’s boat - Sultan didn’t go.
And why the fawning treatment to bend over backwards to call his gay daughter a Private Citizen?
March 19th, 2008 at 3:30 pmWhat we do know is that they had then, and have now, a process by which they’re trying to enrich uranium, which is the key obstacle they’ve got to overcome in order to have a nuclear weapon,” he added.
It’s also the key obstacle they have to overcome in order to be able to build a nuclear power plant.
So.
March 19th, 2008 at 3:30 pmAnd why the fawning treatment to bend over backwards to call his gay daughter a Private Citizen?
Wrong daughter. Liz is his pride and joy and she is straight. She is always with her family whereas Mary is hidden away like the crazy old uncle.
March 19th, 2008 at 3:31 pmHey good_golly I recall back during the Ford admin [1974] that Cheney,Wolfie and Rummy wanted to sell Iran a full nuclear cycle program.
March 19th, 2008 at 3:33 pm@Bilbo Hussein Baggins:
Thanks for the correction. Omani Sultan Quaboos is known to be openly gay, which would have made it fitting.
March 19th, 2008 at 3:33 pm“…his gay daughter…” (Cheney’s)
March 19th, 2008 at 3:33 pmHe has two, this one is straight, metaphorically speaking.
The lesbian daughter is a stay at home mom these days…..
Hmmmm. Cheney inflating the Eye-Ranianmushroomcloud blow up scaryclowndoll again, if you will.
March 19th, 2008 at 3:37 pmAgain, goon_golly’s reading comprehension skills are lacking. Obama did not say that Iran is continuing it’s nuclear program. He said that Iran continuing it’s nuclear program would be the greatest challenge to American interest in the middle east.
If Obama was going to say that he believed Iran was continuing it’s nuclear program, he would have said it straight out. Obama does know how to speak the English language, unlike our current idiot and chief.
March 19th, 2008 at 3:38 pmGG, notice how Obama said nuclear program, not nuclear weapons program. Even the nuclear program presents a “challenge” to the US in the ME since we have denied them the right to pursue even a peaceful program because we don’t “trust” them. He never said they continued to build weapons. Also, Iran is a challenge to us, and he acknowledged that, shouldn’t you be happy that he “recognizes the threat.”? No, I guess not, because he’s not planning on BOMBING THEM.
March 19th, 2008 at 3:40 pmGigi must be from the Bizarro universe. It seem that every link it posts disproves it’s point. Though I suppose it could be congenital stupidity compounded by faulty education.
March 19th, 2008 at 3:42 pmThe Iranian regime has never invaded another country, initiated a war, or tried to impose its rule by military means on other nations. It is equally false to claim, as President Bush has done, that Iran “is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.” Iran has always opposed al-Qaeda, it does not sponsor terrorist acts in Western countries, and it has never supported the Taliban, even though Bush has claimed that it does. Iran does support Hezbollah and Hamas, but these are groups that fight against what they believe to be the repressive policies of Israel.
AS WHERE AMERICA
Unfortunately, the historical record does not bear this out. Since the end of World War Two, the U.S. has supported dozens of murderous dictators both financially and militarily: for example, Joseph Mobutu of Zaire, Augusto Pinochet of Chili, Suharto of Indonesia, Saddam Hussein of Iraq, the shah of Iran, Anastasio Somoza of Nicaragua, Fulgencio Batista of Cuba, and dictatorships in Greece, Portugal, Pakistan, Egypt, and many other countries. In 1954 the CIA sabotaged the elected government in Guatemala. The U.S. invaded Panama in 1989, killing 3,000 to 4,000 civilians. It trained and supported death squads in El Salvador. It supported the Taliban, brought the Ba’ath Party to power in Iraq, and sold material for chemical weapons to the regime of Saddam Hussein.
March 19th, 2008 at 3:42 pmcalibleu Says:
March 19th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Well we would know what Iran was doing execpt you outed Valerie Plame.
Thereby putting her covert operation, known publicly as Brewster Jennings, out of operation. As you correctly indicate, this act of treason by the Bush administration effectively shut off intelligence about Iran’s nuclear activities.
I have long believed the exposure of Plame and her covert operation was more than just punishment against Joe Wilson. I think the Bush administration long ago had information that Iran had stopped it’s nuclear program, and they acted to destroy Brewster Jennings before it’s operatives could provide evidence to that fact.
March 19th, 2008 at 3:44 pmGigi must be from the Bizarro universe. It seem that every link it posts disproves it’s point. Though I suppose it could be congenital stupidity compounded by faulty education.
I’m not sure this one even has a “point”. I see it as this little robot that goes to the RNC talking point site and cuts and pastes whatever is the current talking point listed there.
March 19th, 2008 at 3:44 pmGreat list man, too many people forget this crap when talking about anything going on in the world these days. This list fits nicely with my response to any reich-wing idiots who say “The WMDs were THERE!! They just moved them to Syria and Iran!!!” (because of course all muslims stick together, even if shia and sunni hate each other, and Iranians aren’t ARABS, they are PERSIANS): “Any WMDs we find in Iraq or that we find elsewhere that used to be in Iraq will have a receipt attached with Don Rumsfelds signature on it.”
March 19th, 2008 at 3:46 pmOf course they had that info long ago, the NIE says that Iran stopped it’s weapons program in 2003…are you telling me that it takes our intelligence community nigh on 5 FREAKING YEARS to know whether or not our supposed enemies are still making weapons or have stopped? If that is true, then every war we’ve ever won was by virtue of LUCK.
March 19th, 2008 at 3:48 pmThis was during an interview, right?
Did the interviewer just give him a pass when he outright lied??
What the heck happened to our media?
March 19th, 2008 at 3:53 pmCan we FINALLY call this whore an enemy of the United States?
March 19th, 2008 at 3:54 pmF%cking shoot that piece of crap…..with a glance.
shoeless Says:
March 19th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
I have long believed the exposure of Plame and her covert operation was more than just punishment against Joe Wilson. I think the Bush administration long ago had information that Iran had stopped it’s nuclear program, and they acted to destroy Brewster Jennings before it’s operatives could provide evidence to that fact.
I agree. Now that Admiral Fallon has resigned, Cheney and the rest of the “Bomb Iran” crowd are going to try and get us into another fiasco. My fear is that they will succeed.
March 19th, 2008 at 3:54 pmI betcha that if Iran agreed to buy their nuclear fuel from, oh I don’t know, GE maybe?, that a lot of this posturing would go away.
“Companies are racing to provide radioactive fuel for America’s nuclear renaissance, and are powering debate along the way.
Even as the government continues to oppose Iran’s efforts to enrich uranium for power plants, projects to do just that are under way in this country. General Electric Co. and USEC Inc., along with European rivals Urenco Ltd. and Areva Inc., are pushing billions worth of new U.S. enrichment plants or technology so they don’t miss the new uranium boom.”
http://www.jacksonholestartrib.com/ articles/ 2008/ 02/ 29/ news/ regional/ 991c5d28515bb257872573fb006c34eb.txt
March 19th, 2008 at 4:15 pmgood_golly Says:
Don’t forget to buy stock in Kimberly_Clark.
This troll’s gotta be going through a whole pack of Depends everyday…
March 19th, 2008 at 4:36 pmgood_golly is nothing but a distorting liar. Gigi posits that the position of Obama is the same as that of Cheney. Note what a person with no regards for the truth will say:
Gigi will not note the significant differences between Cheney’s and Obamas statements. In particular, Cheney is addressing whether or not Iran has an active nuclear weaponization program as opposed to a nuclear program that involves enrichment of uranium for use in energy production. Obviously, we should be concerned with enrichment since it can be used for both peaceful energy development or weaponization. Iran has made threatening statements against Israel. We ought to be concerned. However, Cheney attempts to distort and mislead the public into believing that Iran has an active program to develop a nuclear weapon. That is a significantly different statement. However, those with little moral compunction or values, like gigi, will obviously lie.
March 19th, 2008 at 4:39 pmSo if 99% of those in on the government intelligence don’t see a 6 foot tall pink rabbit and 1 person sees a 6-foot tall pink rabbit, what is the natural conclusion ?
March 19th, 2008 at 5:00 pmWhy is anyone surprised? This is nothing more than a variation on the One Percent Doctrine which the Bush administration used to justify the War In Iraq — that the possibility of a nation or group of people acquiring or developing WMD, even if the chance is as remote as 1%, should be regarded as a certainty and a response made in the form of immediate action rather than merely formulating a contingency strategy. Of course, if Aesop were alive today to comment on this policy, he would likely make reference to his story of The Wolf And The Lamb…the moral of which is that “any excuse will serve a tyrant”.
All one has to do in order to see that this is primarily what the One Percent Doctrine is — a trumped-up excuse created deliberately by members of the Bush administration in order to justify an oil grab — is to consider three things:
1) Dick Cheney is one of the founding members of Project for a New American Century (PNAC). His name appears alongside those of several other past members of the Bush administration such as Libby, Rumsfeld, and Wolfowitz on PNAC’s Statement of Principles dated June 3, 1997 — which can be found on PNAC’s website, http://www.newamericancentury.org. As far back as the Clinton administration, PNAC was stating their belief in the importance of removing Saddam Hussein from power and promoting the United States as a dominant force throughout the globe. They even went so far as to state (in a 2000 report titled “Rebuilding America’s Defenses” which can also be found on their website) that “the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event––like a new Pearl Harbor“. Even the most hardened skeptic has to admit that even if 9/11 was a complete coincidence of which the Bush administration had absolutely no foreknowledge, it was to say the least a remarkably convenient one from the perspective of PNAC.
2) Iran is known to be have one of the world’s top five largest oil reserves, as is Iraq. Saudi Arabia (naturally) heads the list, Canada is second, Iraq is third, Iran is fourth, Kuwait is fifth. Consider also that one member of Cheney’s secretive Energy Task Force is a man named Matthew Simmonds, who has for twenty years managed his own investment bank specializing in the energy industry. Today, Simmonds is a prominent and vocal figure within the Peak Oil movement. Coincidence? Perhaps…but perhaps not.
3) During Bush’s first term, even though he labeled North Korea a member of the “Axis Of Evil”, all appearances suggest that nobody in the Bush Administration seriously considered using the One Percent Doctrine against North Korea even though they were taking steps that were much more suggestive of an active nuclear weapons development program — expelling UN inspectors, dismantling UN monitor cameras, and unloading fuel rods from their reactors. A Pakistani scientist by name of Abdul Qareem Khan is known to have passed nuclear technology secrets to North Korea, and there is reason to believe that North Korea’s claim of a successful underground nuclear bomb test in 2006 may not be an exaggeration. Although their long-range missile tests have not been successful, they have short-range missile technology with which they can reach Japan and parts of Russia. Granted, it’s quite possible that one answer to the question of why we haven’t used the One Percent Doctrine there can be summed up in one word — China — but it doesn’t change the fact that our policy is hypocritical and our antagonism rather conveniently slanted towards those countries with large reserves of petroleum.
As an aside, isn’t it interesting that nobody in the Bush administration has apparently thought to apply a variation of the One Percent Doctrine to something like global warming? Or strengthening levees — i.e., Hurricane Katrina? Or strengthening bridges — i.e., Minneapolis?
March 19th, 2008 at 5:09 pm.
CHENEY = LIAR!
.
March 19th, 2008 at 7:08 pmDickdistorts time and space, because he’s a black hole of evil.
March 19th, 2008 at 7:08 pmRead this article from The Onion, published just after GWB was first elected president in January of 2001:
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28784
It really underscores just how surreal the past eight years have been when a scathing parody turns out to be virtually dead-on accurate.
Only generally on-topic, hope that’s okay.
-Crazy Hussein Cat Lady
March 19th, 2008 at 7:39 pmSince the end of World War Two, the U.S. has supported dozens of murderous dictators both financially and militarily: for example, Joseph Mobutu of Zaire, Augusto Pinochet of Chili, Suharto of Indonesia, Saddam Hussein of Iraq, the shah of Iran, Anastasio Somoza of Nicaragua, Fulgencio Batista of Cuba, and dictatorships in Greece, Portugal, Pakistan, Egypt, and many other countries. In 1954 the CIA sabotaged the elected government in Guatemala. The U.S. invaded Panama in 1989, killing 3,000 to 4,000 civilians. It trained and supported death squads in El Salvador. It supported the Taliban, brought the Ba’ath Party to power in Iraq, and sold material for chemical weapons to the regime of Saddam Hussein. — Tobie Tall
**********************************************************
Excellent comment, Tobie. However, if I may add to your list, don’t forget America’s recent dealings with Islam Karimov, the dictator of Uzbekistan. What irony…the Bush administration enlists the assistance of one brutal and corrupt dictator (Karimov — a man who has reportedly had political opponents boiled alive) in their efforts to unseat another brutal and corrupt dictator (Hussein).
I’ve said this many times before and will say it again — the United States is not the staunch defender of democracy that it purports itself to be. Yes, the United States has been willing to defend democracy — when it’s suited our purposes to do so. However, we’ve also been quite willing to turn our backs on democracy when it’s suited our purposes to do so — and on at least one occasion, even subvert it outright.
Don’t believe me? Let’s consider a certain joint government operation between the United States and Great Britain during the Eisenhower administration which succeeded in its goal of unseating the democratically-elected Prime Minister of a certain Middle Eastern country and return a certain monarch to power — a monarch who promptly sentenced the Prime Minister to death (later commuted to a life sentence under house arrest) and is known to have practiced torture upon his political opponents during a reign which lasted for over two decades. The reason why the US and Great Britain wanted to unseat the Prime Minister? He planned to nationalize the country’s oil industry. Of which country, you ask, do I speak?
Iran.
The monarch in question was, of course, Shah Reza Pahlevi. The democratically-elected Prime Minister was Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh, and the government operation in question was code-named Operation Ajax.
If the Iranians have a problem with the United States, doesn’t this put things into some more perspective — and suggest that they might actually have some reason for feeling that way?
March 19th, 2008 at 8:27 pmChenney has no credibility when he opens his ugly mouth! If the US is ever interested in restoring the United States International credibility, it has to start by indicting imprisioning Chenney/Bush and Co. for War Crimes. And for War Crimes these bastards have to face the death sqauad!
March 19th, 2008 at 9:35 pmEven as a seasoned vet of reality, I find it amazing how often the US Govt. “policy makers” repeat the mistakes of Vietnam and of their Isreali allies — if the current situation in Iraq and Iran re: US “strategy” isn’t deja vu all over again, then I’m clueless ;)
March 29th, 2008 at 1:04 am