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Cheney Declares (In Secret) That NSA Surveillance Could Have Prevented 9-11 and Calls NSA Abuses “Hogwash”

250px-46_Dick_Cheney_3x4A secret recording has surfaced of Vice President Dick Cheney speaking to the Republican Jewish Coalition where he held forth on various subjects — assuming that the session was closed to the public and press. Cheney appears to be intent on, again, revising history to get people to embrace a security state. You may recall how Cheney (who is often cited as a potential defendant in a torture prosecution) publicly assuring the nation that the Bush torture program produced valuable intelligence. That assertion has been previously dismissed by experts and insiders. However, as we discussed recently, the forthcoming Senate Report goes into great deal to show that not only is that assertion untrue but that the CIA actively sought to hide the fact that the torture program produced insignificant intelligence (and that detainees were tortured despite their cooperation in conventional interrogations). Cheney is now fighting to defend the massive surveillance of citizens — again dismissing even the concessions of intelligence officials about abuses and violations under the program. Cheney told a rapturous crowd that all such accounts were “hogwash.” He further pumped the crowd with support for an attack on Iran to add yet another war to our current international conflicts.

In his March 29th remarks, Cheney insisted that suggestions “That we have created in the National Security Agency this monster bureaucracy that’s reading everybody’s mail, listening to everybody’s phone calls, infringing upon our civil liberties and civil rights — hogwash.” He then adds the assertion that, if we had only embraced massive surveillance previously, “It probably would’ve allowed us to stop 9/11.”

It is a signature moment for Cheney. Once again, when confronted with the creation of a security state and mass surveillance, he plays the 9-11 card. There has never been any suggestion that the program would have prevented 9-11. More importantly, Cheney seems to be forgetting the findings of virtually every investigation of 9-11 that the CIA and FBI could have prevented the attacks with existing powers. Intelligence officials failed to share information and use existing powers to prevent the attack despite various indications that the attack was coming. Of course those findings do not play as well for expanding the powers and budgets of those very same agencies. Instead, citizens are asked to embrace torture, kill lists, and massive surveillance if they want to avoid an attack.

For many outside of this country, the very fact that Cheney has not been prosecuted for his role in the torture program is a consistent reminder of the failure of the country to fulfilled its obligations under existing treaties, as reflected by the recent U.N. report (only the latest such UN criticism). Cheney is a fascinating study of how some citizens and leaders seem to have an overwhelming inclination toward authoritarian power (not just to wield it but to be subject to it). It could not be more disconnected with the views and values of the Framers who deeply distrusted government powers and foreign entanglements. Even in the face of reports and statements from intelligence officials to the contrary, Cheney continues to deny reality in support of near absolute powers in the president. It is hard to tell if he truly believes these accounts or simply seeks to sustain a rivaling narrative. Either way, it increasingly appears so disconnected from reality as to be doublespeak, or even delusional, for Cheney.

Source: Yahoo

212 thoughts on “Cheney Declares (In Secret) That NSA Surveillance Could Have Prevented 9-11 and Calls NSA Abuses “Hogwash””

  1. I see, by accounting you mean a trail. Yes indeed. Innocent until proven guilty.

  2. BFM, you don’t think Cheney or Bush guilty of war crimes? Isn’t water boarding considered torture? Isn’t torture a war crime? I’m no expert in these things, so perhaps I’m mistaken.

    1. Yes I do think those are war crimes.

      The question is why on earth would you want to give them amnesty?

  3. Well, I do remember Richard Clarke trying his best to get someone in the White House to listen to him. He said that when they were doing the briefing during the change of administrations, he and the CIA were trying to point to Al Queda and Bin Laden, when Rumsfeld and Cheney were only interested in Iraq. Then, there was the courier who brought the bad news (perhaps the “Bin Laden determined to attack in U.S.”?) to the ranch in Crawford, and Bush said “OK, you’ve covered your ass.” The fact is, no, there wasn’t a memo that said “hey, some f**kers are going to hijack 4 planes”, but there was a lot of chatter. Up to, and including, the fact that Sadaam wasn’t trying to buy yellowcake from Africa, but then that was Valerie Plame and her husband, and who would listen to them? No, better torture someone who would have possibly provided solid information, as some did, and get a load of crap from them because they’re going to say whatever it is you want them to say.

  4. Dredd, they can always join the Assemblies of God, Sarah Palin’s and my childhood church. They’d be welcomed with open arms.

  5. Some in the church where Dick hides reject The Cheney:

    We, the undersigned, do hold that George W. Bush, a member of Park Hill United Methodist Church (UMC) in Dallas, Texas, and Dick Cheney (local membership unknown) are undeniably guilty of at least four chargeable offenses for lay members as listed in 2702.3 of the 2000 Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church. These offenses are: crime, immorality, disobedience to the Order and Discipline of The UMC, and dissemination of doctrine contrary to the established standards of doctrine of The UMC. For these offenses, we the undersigned call for an immediate and public act of repentance by the respondents. If the respondents do not reply with sincere and public repentance for their crimes, we demand that their membership in the United Methodist Church be revoked until such time that they sincerely and publicly repent.

    (Methodists Call for Expulsion of Bush, Cheney from Church).

  6. Ooo, crucifixion, right before Easter! Yes, I am so proud of Cheney, Bush, Obama, and others who order torture. What more could I want to prove this is christian nation but a good, old-fashioned crucifixion?

  7. My name is Dick Cheney and George Bush and we approved this message: “The next day, McClatchy reported that the investigation includes the horrid details of at least five suspects to die in CIA custody, including “the death of Gul Rahman, an Afghan who was shackled, doused with cold water and left in a cold cell partially clothed until he died of hypothermia”, and “Manadal al Jamadi, who reportedly died after he was hung in a crucifixion-like pose and his head had been covered with a plastic bag.”

    see the Guardian from Glenn’s twitter

  8. Prayze Cheezus of Oilah and pass the bigotry:

    The great empirical social psychologist who specialized in studying bigotry, Bob Altemeyer, in his 1996 The Authoritarian Specter, and his other writings, reported his exhaustive empirical studies, of more than 50,000 individuals in many countries, demonstrating that bigotries against each and every minority group were the highest amongst the individuals who scored as being the most religious in any religion. In each religion, the more fundamentalist one was, the more bigoted one tended to be, not just against non-believers, but against homosexuals, Blacks, and so forth. Religious belief, in other words, causes bigotry. His studies also found that his scale for “Right-Wing Authoritarianism” (RWA) or what’s commonly called conservatism was exhibited the most strongly by fundamentalists (and, in the Soviet Union, those fundamentalists took as their inerrant Scripture not the Bible, but instead Marx’s Das Capital). Moreover, as one would expect from persons of faith (even of an atheistic one), people of high RWA tended to make incorrect inferences from evidence, accept internal contradictions within their own beliefs, oppose constitutional guarantees of individual liberty, believe more strongly in sticks than in carrots to correct a person’s behavior, and were closed-minded to criticism of themselves.

    (Eric Zuesse, citing Bob Altemeyer).

  9. I think this blog has become much more diverse, making the quality better. But, to each their own.

  10. I am in agreement with the federal courts backing the targeted killing of hostiles regardless. If you use the ACLU’s reasoning we would not have been able to prosecute the Civil War.

  11. Since the evidence points to 9/11 being a false flag, covert op – with Cheney himself playing a major role, it COULD have been prevented, but that wasn’t
    the plan.

    1. Since I saw one of the planes fly into the towers on tv and a friend of mine saw the plane fly into the Pentagon, I am not sure how it was a false flag operation.

  14. Max, it’s so way beyond past time to end these wars, spying and amnesty for war criminals. I think Americans left and right are fatigued, disgusted and demoralized by it all.

    1. “amnesty for war criminals.”

      Really????

      Maybe we ought to have a full accounting of war crimes first.

  15. If the USA can afford Bin Laden’s son (foreign national) a Federal Trial…
    … Why couldn’t the USA afford an American (Al-Aulaqi’s son) a trial?

    I guess the American Legal Justice system isn’t cut out for Americans…

  16. You can bet you bottom dollar… in five years Obama will give interviews stating he’d do it (sic) all over again, too!

  17. Yesterday’s Federal Court Ruling Court Dismisses Lawsuit Challenging U.S. Drone Killings of Three Americans on top of the torture and spying… Chilling!

    ANY Administration can target an American citizen, refuse to provide evidence to a court for review (aka Due Process), and commence assassination. The Judge basically dismissed the Federal Courts from ruling on Constitutional matters… when the object of the Administration’s cross hairs happens to be ‘during a time of war’.

    Perpetual war…

    Would have great to be able to inform the judge that the USA successfully tried a foreign national in a Federal Court on Terrorism charges… AND WON!!!

    Why doesn’t the Admin have to do that with Americans?

    Now, we get torture and spying thrown in there too…
    … I’ll join any Law group willing to march and fill the streets calling for the restoration of the Rule of Law.

  18. Jonathan,

    I think you are missing the greatest offender of breaching the civility rules…. You may have deleted mine as well as Pete’s and AP…. But you don’t stick close enough to realize the damage that is being done by one unnamed…. It’s unfortunate…. This used to be a premiere site that one could express opinions, ideals, beliefs, life etc without fear of reprise… Today not so much….

    There are digs put out there and as soon as they are called in it they go mea culpa…. And the change the subject…. No sooner do you go away …. They start right back up….

    Have you noticed the quality and quantity of the posts going down in here in the last few months…. This should be an indication something else is going on….. And it’s not just you not being here…..

    I have been getting attacked for spelling errors…. You should take exception to that…. You need to look deep and hard to really see what’s amiss here….

  19. Annie – you responded to a comment I made, now that comment is gone. Is there a phantom censor? I ask a legitimate question based on something you said and I get censored? Who is doing it?

    1. Paul,

      I just deleted a whole series of comments, many from Anonymously Yours, that seemed to be returning once again to the prior problems of personal attacks and references. Rather than ban individuals who have been repeatedly violating our civility rule, I have tried to quickly remove such comments. Frankly, I am growing weary of a handful of people using this blog to take cheap shots or make personal attacks. I have been trying to be pro-active to see if more control over comments will allow us to avoid the extreme step of banning people — something that I find anathema from a free speech perspective. Some posters seem determined to start fights or revive past conflicts on the blog. I am not sure why but these cheap shots are clogging the comments section and forcing everyone to read juvenile attacks. I do not recall your comment but I will look for it. If it was misinterpreted as a dig, you have my apology. However, we will be trying to deter posters from engaging in personal observations and attacks on this blog. There are many blogs that relish such comments. We just do not happen to be one of them.

      1. Jonathan – I happen to like Annie, she is my frenemy. 🙂 My question was legitimate based on her previous comments and I was trying to get clarification.

  20. It is very troublesome that Cheney can be treated as a legitimate, scholarly, and authoritative voice in the media. The passage of time has already made some people feel comfortable with that administration, and that is very troubling.
    Is there any chance that the law will come back that requires equal time for left and right commentary? That may keep the flames from getting out of control to start with.

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