I never even opened it.
"Cheney discussed the secret letter in an interview with NBC News to promote the release of his memoir, which will be released next week....
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"Cheney is unapologetic in memoir" August 29, 2011|By Karen DeYoung and Scott Wilson, Washington Post
WASHINGTON - Former vice president Dick Cheney provides an unapologetic defense of President George W. Bush’s administration in his memoir to be released tomorrow, including explanations of his own decisions about contested national security and domestic policies that often come at the expense of former Cabinet members and colleagues.
Those include the justification to invade Iraq in 2003, a judgment he blames on CIA failures, Cheney writes in “In My Time,’’ a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post....
The memoir unfolds largely chronologically, although it is dominated by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and Cheney’s role in the construction of the intelligence and national security framework to manage the aftermath.
It details his operational overlord role on 9/11?
Cheney sheds little new light on the development of some of the more controversial national security policies, and he echoes his previous criticism of President Obama’s effort to end harsh interrogation tactics and close the US prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Cheney defends the use of such interrogation methods on suspected terrorists, practices human rights groups and other nations have called torture, and the National Security Agency’s former program of eavesdropping on communications from the United States.
“The Terrorist Surveillance Program is, in my opinion, one of the most important success stories in the history of American intelligence,’’ he writes. “If I had to do it all over again, I would, in a heartbeat.’’
Although he offers sympathy for the “difficult’’ task of intelligence agencies, Cheney lays the blame squarely on them for the administration’s claims about weapons in Iraq, writing that “the intelligence that Saddam had stockpiles of WMD was wrong.’’
Although they served amiably together in the administration of George H. W. Bush and jointly managed the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Cheney’s relationship with Colin L. Powell, who was secretary of state, quickly disintegrated under George W. Bush. Powell faults Cheney for much of what he thinks went wrong, and Cheney returns the favor.
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"Powell says Cheney book takes ‘cheap shots’" August 29, 2011|Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Former secretary of state Colin Powell yesterday dismissed the criticism leveled at him and others in vice president Dick Cheney’s memoir, calling it as “cheap shots.’’
It was the latest volley in a clash that stretches back to their first years in President George W. Bush’s administration.
Powell said that if Cheney’s staff and others in Bush’s White House had been as forthcoming as the State Department in the case involving CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson, the indictment and conviction of Cheney’s friend and former chief of staff wouldn’t have happened.
Related: Obama Defends Dick Cheney
Dick committed treason more than once.
And he is critical of Obama?
Powell made the remarks yesterday on CBS’s “Face the Nation’’ ahead of tomorrow’s release of Cheney’s book, “In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir.’’ Cheney said in an earlier NBC interview that the book would cause “heads to explode’’ in Washington, a description Powell said he expected from a supermarket tabloid and not a former vice president.
“From what I’ve read in the newspapers and seen on television, it’s essentially a rehash of events of seven or eight years ago.’’
Cheney and Powell had numerous disagreements in the administration, particularly over policy toward Iraq and the run-up to the 2003 invasion by US-led forces....
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And as if you needed any more proof politics is all a bulls*** diversion:
"Cheney ponders US under Hillary Clinton" by Associated Press / September 5, 2011
WASHINGTON - Dick Cheney, former vice president, said yesterday that if Hillary Rodham Clinton were in the White House rather than Barack Obama, then things might be different today in the country.
In an interview on “Fox New Sunday,’’ Cheney didn’t get into specifics, but he said “perhaps she might have been easier for some of us who are critics of the president to work with.’’
Cheney said it is his sense that the secretary of state is “one of the more competent members’’ of the Obama administration and it would be “interesting to speculate’’ about how she would have performed as president....
He might not have to wonder long.
Think Dick's endorsement will help?
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Related: Time to Die, Dick!
At least someone agrees with me.
