Cheney On Why He Speaks Out: I’m Doing It For ‘The Little Guys’
Cheney On Why He Speaks Out: I’m Doing It For ‘The Little Guys’
Since leaving office, Vice President Cheney has launched unrelenting and baseless attacks on President Obama while vigorously defending the Bush administration’s actions, which are currently being investigated. “I think that’s a great success story,” Cheney said of the Bush administration’s torture program. “It was done legally. It was done in accordance with our constitutional practices and principles.”
In an interview with biographer Stephen Hayes on Monday, Cheney explained why he has emerged as such a vocal Bush defender and Obama critic — in contrast to President Bush, who says Obama “deserves my silence.” Cheney said that when he was a member of Congress during the Iran-Contra investigations (of which he was a prominent critic), he saw firsthand senior administration officials absolving themselves while unfairly pinning blame on the “little guys.” Because of this, Cheney said, he “sure as hell will” continue to speak out:
CHENEY: I went through the Iran-contra hearings and watched the way administration officials ran for cover and left the little guys out to dry. And I was bound and determined that wasn’t going to happen this time. I think to George Tenet’s credit–I don’t agree with George on a lot of stuff–but I think he was of the same view and that’s why we had all of these requests coming through for policy guidance and for legal opinions. And this time around I’ll do my damndest to defend anybody out there–be they in the agency carrying out the orders or the lawyers who wrote the opinions. I don’t know whether anybody else will, but I sure as hell will.
Cheney’s defense of the “little guy,” especially with regard to torture, is unusual. First, the Bush officials implicated in approving torture were hardly “little” — they were the senior-most Bush administration officials, such as David Addington, Jay Bybee, and Alberto Gonzales.
Second, after Abu Ghraib broke in 2004, Cheney and the Bush administration systematically laid the blame for the abuses on low-level interrogators and attempted to exonerate senior officials. Cheney, for example, blamed “folks doing something improper, inappropriate, illegal.” Paul Wolfowitz famously called it the work of “a few bad apples.” Former press secretary Tony Snow called the abuses “a criminal infraction for which people were charged.”
Yet as a recent Senate Armed Services Committee report observed, “The abuse of detainees in U.S. custody cannot simply be attributed to the actions of ‘a few bad apples’ acting on their own.” Indeed, the tactics were directly approved by Donald Rumsfeld in 2002.
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So now he is little Dick Cheney?
May 6th, 2009 at 2:47 pmHmm, seems to me that if Mr. Cheney is all in favor of making sure that the people responsible for our descent into Hades are held accountible, he should be measuring himself for some leg irons and a bright orange jumpsuit….
May 6th, 2009 at 2:48 pmSo why are the little guys, the ones instructed by the BC admin, in prison?
But I know what Cheney will say..SO?
May 6th, 2009 at 2:49 pmMust be an inordinate percentage of millionaires with Napoleon complexes…
May 6th, 2009 at 2:51 pm.
R E M E M B E R:
He’s covering the butts of the “little” guys who were just following the “big” guys orders.
I still want Cheney to explain when TORTURE became legal…
… That he’d have to go to bat for the “little” guys.
.
May 6th, 2009 at 2:51 pmHe’s doing it for the little zeroes after the ones in his Dubai offshore accounts.
May 6th, 2009 at 2:52 pm.
I suppose Dick and Lynn think crushing their grandson’s testicles is a good thing? How about locking him in a confined bow with stinging insects? YES?
WHAT ABOUT THOSE LITTLE GUYS?
.
May 6th, 2009 at 2:53 pmOh this is so rich it has to be fattening.
May 6th, 2009 at 2:53 pmI just hope to X that in my lifetime, I see this justice served, and this criminal swinging from a gallows at Den Hague.
May 6th, 2009 at 2:54 pmWho specifically are the ‘little guys’? Does he mean those in the CIA who inflicted the torture, the attorneys who manipulated the language to fit around torture, or those who ORDERED the torture – INCLUDING HIMSELF???? He has to mean HIMSELF since he has never been known to help anyone except DICK CHENEY!
May 6th, 2009 at 2:54 pmAm I reading this right? Is Cheney saying there were administration officials involved in the Iran Contra affair that should be held accountable?
May 6th, 2009 at 2:55 pmif the mainstream media (Fox not included) just ignored this guy, just maybe he would go away and die someplace.
May 6th, 2009 at 2:56 pmHow honorable of Mr. Cheney! Putting himself up there to take the heat instead of the little guys having to take it.
So, does that mean that Cheney is taking any heat? I’m not sure if I’ve heard even one interviewer give him any heat. Did I miss something?
Are we to believe that’s why he’s out there defending torture? That it has nothing to do with protecting his legacy, his own ass? Such an altruistic person that Cheney.
May 6th, 2009 at 2:56 pm.
Q U E S T I O N:
So Cheney is doing it for little guy/gals, instead?
Is he speaking out for Spc. Charles A. Graner, Jr.?
Or how about Spc. Lynndie England?
.
May 6th, 2009 at 2:57 pmI hope this WAR CRIMINAL ends up like his FACIST WWII counter part, Mussolini: His fat body hanging up side down and the Italian people queueing to spit on it!
May 6th, 2009 at 2:58 pm.
Q U E S T I O N:
What would it make the coach of a Major League Baseball team…
… If he advocated the use of steroids?
.
May 6th, 2009 at 2:59 pmIf anyone thinks the perpetrators of any policy on the government level will be called to task for their involvement in any illegality they should hope the Easter Bunny brings them a nice basket of goodies.
May 6th, 2009 at 2:59 pmEXCUSE ME – Can someone tell me where in our Constitution it says TORTURE IS LEGAL? I .missed that wording and/or paragraph
May 6th, 2009 at 3:02 pmDick, I appreciate your concern so why don’t you turn yourself in and give your testimony? That would help us avoid the exercise of working our way up the chain to you, the culprit behind the torture crimes.
May 6th, 2009 at 3:03 pmHoodathunktick,
May 6th, 2009 at 3:03 pmI like chocolate eggs and jelly beans and peeps.
Max Anax junius -1 Says:
Q U E S T I O N:
So Cheney is doing it for little guy/gals, instead?
Is he speaking out for Spc. Charles A. Graner, Jr.?
Or how about Spc. Lynndie England?
__________________
In our dreams!
May 6th, 2009 at 3:04 pmMax, I like the first two but I know where they come from.
May 6th, 2009 at 3:04 pmSimple Follow-up question:
Mr. Cheney, how do you define “little guy”. Is it like your definition of “Middle Class” means those whose salary is in the mid-millions ?
May 6th, 2009 at 3:08 pmThe only “little guys” he is protecting are those “little guys” hanging between his legs which he doesn’t want tossed into a “little cell” with “little money” and “little power” available.
May 6th, 2009 at 3:08 pmMadasHelinVA,
Please don’t think that I’m standing up for these two. What they did deserved what they got. I just can’t believe that Cheney would stump for the chumps that crafted a policy, AFTER the TORTURE was under way, that got these two court marshaled. So in essence, Cheney is arguing that the orders(read memos) were legal, just anybody caught carrying them out, not so much?
Cheney = CYA
May 6th, 2009 at 3:09 pmCheney is looing out for Cheney. why would he stop lying now?
May 6th, 2009 at 3:09 pmMaybe he should put up or shut up. Maybe he should come clean and take the fall. You know, for the “little guys.”
May 6th, 2009 at 3:11 pmMadasHelinVA Says:
EXCUSE ME – Can someone tell me where in our Constitution it says TORTURE IS LEGAL? I .missed that wording and/or paragraph
It doesn’t exist. What it exists is the fantasy that political realities are more important than the law. Torture is so illegal on so many levels but it doesn’t make nice with the political structure of our present government. They beleive whatecer they like. Including the President, it seems.
May 6th, 2009 at 3:12 pmI don’t want them to go after the little guys either, Dick.
May 6th, 2009 at 3:13 pmAnyone else think it is strange that while the administration is trying to keep the issue of prosecution quiet, cheney keeps reving it up. If he would shut up, the issue might cool down. Americans have a way of quickly forgetting unpleasant issues. Too bad we can’t be more like the Jews that actually found and had trials for war criminals.
May 6th, 2009 at 3:15 pmWhy wasn’t Rumsfeldt held accountable for Abud Gharab (msp) ? Usually the buck stops at the boss’s desk.
May 6th, 2009 at 3:16 pmMax Anax junius -1 Says:
——————————————————————————–
MadasHelinVA,
Please don’t think that I’m standing up for these two. What they did deserved what they got. I just can’t believe that Cheney would stump for the chumps that crafted a policy, AFTER the TORTURE was under way, that got these two court marshaled. So in essence, Cheney is arguing that the orders(read memos) were legal, just anybody caught carrying them out, not so much?
_________________
I clearly understand – Lindey and Graner got what they deserved, but there is no way under the sun that Cheney is DEFENDING any actions taken by ANYONE EXCEPT DICK CHENEY. His name suits him to a tee – DICK! Nothing further needs to be said since I believe this is NOT the first thing Dick has ever been GUILTY OF, nor will it be the last!
May 6th, 2009 at 3:17 pmLIAR…?????????????????Why the hell did you run and hide when the little guys were hung out to dry at Abu Ghraib when that story hit the headlines????????????????????????
May 6th, 2009 at 3:18 pm.
Volume 56, Number 7 · April 30, 2009
The Red Cross Torture Report: What It Means
By Mark Danner
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22614
Yea Cheney, defend WAR CRIMES.
.
May 6th, 2009 at 3:19 pmCheney is grandstanding because he knows the administration doesn’t want our dirty laundry made public.
Sad to say, he seems to be right.
May 6th, 2009 at 3:20 pmHere’s a plan:
Try and convict Cheney of war crime. Sentence him to death by public hanging.
Conduct the execution on the national mall over by the Vietnam Memorial to a war he was too good or too busy to fight.
And then let the “little guys” go afterwards…
May 6th, 2009 at 3:22 pmHoodathunktick Says:
——————————————————————————–
MadasHelinVA Says:
EXCUSE ME – Can someone tell me where in our Constitution it says TORTURE IS LEGAL? I .missed that wording and/or paragraph
It doesn’t exist. What it exists is the fantasy that political realities are more important than the law. Torture is so illegal on so many levels but it doesn’t make nice with the political structure of our present government. They beleive whatecer they like. Including the President, it seems.
___________________
I know that TORTURE is ILLEGAL anyway Dick wants to shine it on, so it was more rhetorical that anything else. It just gets my panties in a twad when I hear that bast*rd trying to act like some type of hero when we all know he is the devil incarnate and he instigated the language trying like hell to get as close to the legality [even if it meant crossing over the line just a tiney, tiny bit]. TORTURE IS TORTURE and there is absolutely no way around that fact. Furthermore, I have a gut feeling that it was him and Rummy who decided that they wanted this done and they instigated every effort to get it under way. If this were truly investigated [impartially] it would DEFINITELY LEAD TO DICK AND RUMSFELD.
May 6th, 2009 at 3:25 pmAnyone else think it is strange that while the administration is trying to keep the issue of prosecution quiet, cheney keeps reving it up.
he knows nobody in the obama regime has the stones to risk a prosecvution.
He’s safe as houses. Nothing will ever touch hiom for all his deeds.
The Dims are just as guilty as the Pukes. And Obama among them.
This does seem to violate a precedent of some standing: that the top echelons of the dpearting administration remain silent on matters pertaining to the intersection of their regime and their successors.
It should mean that the gloves are off…
Except the opposition is the gutless, feckless, worthless, spineless Dims…
May 6th, 2009 at 3:26 pmMy guess is that Cheney wants to defend the “little guys” so that their loyalty will be repaid by throwing them under the bus at the right time. That’s usually what happens with authority.
May 6th, 2009 at 3:27 pmThe great and all-powerful Wizard of Oz is trying to rebrand himself as the Mayor of Munchkin Land.
The newly-brained scarecrow ain’t buying this.
May 6th, 2009 at 3:27 pmThink about this ; we execute Saddam for ordering the maiming, killing of people but we allow those who do the same in this country to run free an enjoy their riches from the blood of over 4000 Americans. We allow bush to be free after lying us into a war that killed our young and destroyed two countries, America and Iraq. How is this explained to the generation that asks why.
May 6th, 2009 at 3:29 pmHow about stepping up to the plate and admitting all responsibility. Then admitting that it was torture and it was wrong. Wouldn’t that protect the little guy?
I think the little guys he is trying to protect are his own nads!
May 6th, 2009 at 3:29 pmOK, then lets go after the “big” guys.
May 6th, 2009 at 3:30 pmAh, the thought of slow-roasting nuts makes little guys of all of us.
May 6th, 2009 at 3:34 pmCan I just puke??? Apparently Cheney still labors under the delusion that the trumped up legal briefs saying torture is legal, makes it legal. This bozo still thinks we are as dumb as he thinks we are. Please Cheney, you piece of Crap.. just shut up and go back to the ranch, no one likes you or wants to play with you!
May 6th, 2009 at 3:35 pmSince bush received $100 milllion for his library of lies does anyone really think that administration will have to pay for their lies and bankrupting America. Doubt it.
May 6th, 2009 at 3:36 pmAnd while we are at it, let’s please not forget a@@wipe, Ashcroft – he may have grumbled at reading the memos, but he didn’t stand up and say, ‘ABSOLUTELY NO PHUCKING WAY AM I GOING TO BE A PARTY TO THIS S*IT’. And I might add that many members of congress [I don't care if they have a D or R behind their names] knew what was about to occur and they too are guilty because they also did NOT STAND UP to be counted on the ‘ABSOLUTELY NO WAY’ stance! Anyone – anyone who had prior knowledge should be investigated, questioned and found out what they did or did not say. If they didn’t say NO, they had a part in it. And since this is not going away, [probably despite no trials in the end[, it still needs to be added to their 'resumes' [end their careers], but they wouldn’t give a hoot and would skirt around it because that’s the kind of people they seem to be. TALK ABOUT LIPSTICK ON A BUNCH OF PIGS – that’s a lot of our congress.
May 6th, 2009 at 3:36 pmSo after all those years of doing it for the big guys like your oil buddies, you now are doing it for the rest of us?
Stay classy Dick….who am I kidding?
May 6th, 2009 at 3:37 pmCheney could care less about the little guy.… unless the little dick cheney is himself.
An example would be the ruination of the life of Lynndie England… a little guy merely taking orders from the top and her deeds were exploited for distraction to keep the eye off the colpricks Dick and Bush.
May 6th, 2009 at 3:38 pmThere were a few in the administration that quit but more preferred to ride the gravy train or as Condi’s buddy said, he was trying to change from within. Yeah while receiving a hefty salary. Cheney needs to hear that only 21% people admit to being republican. Of course those are the ones in the 1% income grade.
May 6th, 2009 at 3:39 pmI suspect that Cheney’s fingerprints are all over this whole sordid mess. And the only “little guys” he’s going to battle for are the ones who could point their fingers back at him.
May 6th, 2009 at 3:39 pmThis is one of the most telling articles about Dick Cheney’s mentality and psyche ever! This guy really does think and believe the President, Vice Prez, and the administration officials are untouchable because as stated in Iran Contra NYT’s article:
“Mixing bathos with belligerence, Colonel North played the incorruptible action hero facing down Washington politicians and lawyers. He also suggested that, under the Constitution, the president and not Congress held ultimate authority to direct foreign policy.”
The “little guy” he is fighting for are the Ollie North’s of the “legal” torture program (lawyers, cia interrogators, etc.) As he so states
“And this time around I’ll do my damndest to defend anybody out there–be they in the agency carrying out the orders or the lawyers who wrote the opinions.”
He must regret not being more vocal on Ollie North’s defense: (Included in the NYT’s iran contra story):
And here we start to see the strategy that will begin to emerge in arguing against any sanctions against those involved in the “legal” torture program: (Just take out Iran Contra and replace with torture program)
Oh and don’t miss the nugget about CIA director Tenet above – sounds like he’s shaping the defense of why the torture memos were written and routed thru the CIA while implicating Tenet at the same time:
“I think to George Tenet’s credit–I don’t agree with George on a lot of stuff–but I think he was of the same view and that’s why we had all of these requests coming through for policy guidance and for legal opinions.”
What a piece of work he is!
May 6th, 2009 at 3:39 pmYes pleas, go ahead. Don’t expect me to stick around for when the excitement starts…
May 6th, 2009 at 3:44 pmSo many would like all of their heads on sticks, but folks it will never, ever happen. Look at Maddoff, who on this site would be allowed to keep their assets after bilking billions from others. If you have money, power is yours. Bush, Cheney, Wolfawitz, Rove will live in comfort all their lives.
May 6th, 2009 at 3:49 pmCheney is an egotistical self-centered bastard.
The only person Cheney cares about is Dick Cheney….
when he speaks of doing if for the “lil guys” he surely is referring to scro and tum.
May 6th, 2009 at 3:51 pmLittle guys the world over would be better off if Dick Cheney had stayed in Wyoming & spread his manure there. We can all do without this belated “help” now.
The Constant Weader at http://www.RealityChex.com
May 6th, 2009 at 3:55 pmronlis Says:
Oh and don’t miss the nugget about CIA director Tenet above – sounds like he’s shaping the defense of why the torture memos were written and routed thru the CIA while implicating Tenet at the same time
Your entire post smacks of the truth! The bit about Tenet didn’t even occur to me.
May 6th, 2009 at 3:58 pmBig Dicks, big Egos…big deal.
Cheney should have to listen to Rob Zombie or the Insane Clown Posse, 24/7 for the next year.
May 6th, 2009 at 4:00 pmIf Ollie North is a hero, I’m Zeus.
The worst part about this is that he may actually believe this…God, I hope that I am wrong.
May 6th, 2009 at 4:08 pmThe headline alone is enough to make me spit my coffee.
May 6th, 2009 at 4:15 pm“Cheney On Why He Speaks Out: I’m Doing It For ‘The Little Guys’”
So?
Cheney could care less of the little guy and anyone else. Dick only cares about Dick. And the benjamins is what keeps Cheney and his heart going and gives Cheney a tinkling in his loins everyday.
May 6th, 2009 at 4:16 pm“Second, after Abu Ghraib broke in 2004, Cheney and the Bush administration systematically laid the blame for the abuses on low-level interrogators and attempted to exonerate senior officials.”
Abu Ghraib was divided into three areas: 1) the inner torture chamber where waterboarding occurred, but not by U.S. military personnel, 2) the softening-up area, where prisoners were softened-up by U.S. military personnel (like those tried and convicted) prior to these “softened-up” prisoners being more brutally interrogated in the inner torture chamber by CIA and private contract interrogators/torturers and 3) holding cells which comprised the rest of Abu Ghraib, containing prisoners not yet sent to be softened-up by GIs or tortured/harshly interrogated by CIA or private contractors.
So, the Bush/Cheney administration built a fire wall between areas 1) and 2).
Photos were released of what was happening in the softening-up area, but any photos/videotapes or transcripts of torture sessions in the inner torture chamber have been suppressed, or by now, destroyed.
BTW, the term “softening-up” came from something one of the GIs tried and convicted said about what they were told their role was at Abu Ghraib.
So, Bush and Cheney (and now President Obama’s administration apparently) are rigorously maintaining this firewall that was erected after the Abu Ghraib disclosures, to protect not only CIA agents ordered to use brutal interrogation techniques but also to protect the private contract torturers, and keep hidden the full extent of the torture regimen established by the Bush administration.
May 6th, 2009 at 4:17 pmI guess he let those lowly soldiers at Abu Graib become scapegoated because he was “looking out for the little guy”.
May 6th, 2009 at 4:18 pmlink
Torture is just the beginning of the grand crime of the destruction of Iraq. There are well over a million murder charges to be filed.
May 6th, 2009 at 4:52 pmSorry that link doesn’t work. I would really have to dig in my library to find the link.
May 6th, 2009 at 4:52 pmThe little guys to Cheney
Thanks but no thanks.
May 6th, 2009 at 5:31 pmExcuse me while I clean off my keyboard after a spit-take……………..Little guys? Are those the ones you have locked in your man-sized safe, DICK?
May 6th, 2009 at 5:44 pmTo call Dick Cheney an unscrupulous Prick would be a grave disservice to all pricks, regardless of their race, color or creed.
May 6th, 2009 at 5:44 pmDon’t forget Cheney has dead torture victims on his plate.
He’ll want to justify that somehow.
Don’t forget that Cheney is in a meeting with someone at an undisclosed location at this very moment, planning the completion of his work for the buschCo nation, and the construction of the buschCo global empire – The cheney world order. If he can just get past this torture sticking point…
May 6th, 2009 at 6:46 pmTorture is a very important tool for fascists. Cheney won’t let this one go without a fight.
May 6th, 2009 at 6:53 pmAre those the same little guys who are responsible for the voices in his head…?
May 6th, 2009 at 7:41 pmThe “little people” must be his pet name for his nads, because he is all about saving his flabby, white butt.
How about the little people that took the fall at Abu Gahrib? Where were you for them?
May 6th, 2009 at 9:16 pmyeah dick, you gotta defend your co-conspirators, because now your puppet doesnt have his “get out of jail free” pardon card to use to buy thier silence…how much do you want to bet that if Scooter were looking at hard time in the federal pen for the crime he was convicted of, he would have cut a deal to rat out cheney for his criminal leaks and obstruction of justice…a case could never be made against cheney for perjury though, because if the man was ever forced to put his hand on a bible he would burst into flames..
May 6th, 2009 at 10:34 pmHe will eventually bury himself when the rehtoric comes full circle… now is the time to unveil the minutes from the Presdential – Energy Task Force meeting in March of 2001. You know, the meeting that spurned on the 911 international crimial act that brought down the Trade Center Towers and the Pentagon. His behavior is dispicable and it is time to put this draft-dodger and coward in his place – in jail. We do not need Americans altering and disgracing The Constitution of the United States of America like him and his partners in crime.
May 7th, 2009 at 7:59 amCheney’s right!
Focus on the guys at the top!
May 7th, 2009 at 11:38 amWho are Cheney’s little guys? Would they be the executive vice presidents at Halliburton and KBR?
May 7th, 2009 at 3:11 pmCheney needs to go to jail. Biggest criminal of the 20th and 21st centuries.
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