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Business as usual [Rabbit hole 'CHANGE' you can blow out your arse!']
by Kris Alingod via reed - AHN Thursday, Dec 18 2008, 8:34pm
international / social/political / other press

Cheney Praises Obama's National Security Team [A most revealing stamp of approval, don't YOU think, Jethro?]

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Reflecting on his eight years in office in his first interview since the elections, Vice President Dick Cheney praised President-elect Barack Obama's national security team but defended the Bush administration's anti-terror policies, including its use of waterboarding and its decision to invade Iraq, which he said would've still taken place even if intelligence had been accurate.

The Vice President told ABC on Monday that Obama's security team, which includes Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano as secretary of Homeland Security and Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) as secretary of State, was a "pretty good team."

"I'm not close to Barack Obama, obviously, nor do I identify with him politically. He's a liberal. I'm a conservative," Cheney said. "But I think the idea of keeping Gates at Defense is excellent.

I think Jim Jones will be very, very effective as the national security adviser... While I would not have hired Sen. Clinton, I think she's tough. She's smart, she works very hard and she may turn out to be just what President Obama needs."

Cheney, known for his hard-line approach to foreign policy and criticized for his repeated refusals to disclose documents and records to the Democratic-led Congress, also adamantly defended the Bush administration's use of waterboarding, an interrogation method that simulates drowning and that is considered a form of torture by critics.

He added that Guantanamo Bay should remain open so long as there is a war on terror despite the fact that the Bush administration has been trying to look for ways close down the prison camp.

Defense Sec. Robert Gates told the Senate Appropriations Committee in May that the Bush administration has been unable to shut down the prison camp because there was nowhere to put detainees who cannot be charged nor released for security reasons. Last year, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asked for assistance from countries with nationals in the prison to guarantee that detainees would not "be a danger to society again" once released.

Obama has pledged to shut down Guantanamo, saying doing so is "part and parcel of an effort to regain America's moral stature in the world."

During his interview, Cheney, who officially leaves office in a month, was also asked if he agreed with a statement by Karl Rove, the architect of President George W. Bush's two successive electoral victories, saying the United States would not have invaded Iraq if its intelligence about weapons of mass destruction (WMD) had been accurate.

The Vice President said the Bush administration would have invaded whether or not Saddam Hussein had WMD because he had the "capability" to develop them.

"As I look at the intelligence with respect to Iraq, what they got wrong was that there weren't any stockpiles. What they found was that Saddam Hussein still had the capability to produce weapons of mass destruction. He had the technology, he had the people, he had the basic feed stock," he said. "They also found that he had every intention of resuming production once the international sanctions were lifted."

Asked during a November debate about Bush's legacy if the invasion would've still happened, Rove had said, "No... I suspect the administration's course would have been to work to find more creative ways to constrain him than he'd been constrained in the nineties."

Bush told ABC last month in a wide-ranging interview that one of his biggest regrets as president was the "intelligence failure" in Iraq. His administration based its argument to invade Iraq in 2003 on intelligence that Saddam was developing WMD. No such weapons were found.

Cheney's interview was greeted with disdain by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The group's executive director, Anthony Romero said in a statement, "After the failure and repudiation of President Bush's Guantanamo and torture policies in American courts and in the world community, it is stunning that Vice President Cheney still sings the praises of these failed policies. Cheney's fear-mongering is now targeted at a new president who has vowed to make change and give us back an America we can be proud of."

"Cheney's advice to President-elect Obama must be taken with a mountain of salt, given its source. The current administration's torture policies and fundamentally flawed military commissions make a mockery of the Constitution and violate America's commitment to human rights," Romero added.

© 2008 AHN

Do not forget that Mr Barack 'change' O'Watermelon, will allow Cheney, Bush and the rest to go free -- believe in that, you morons!

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7013436159