Word: cheneyism
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...your article on the final days of the Bush White House: I was dismayed by the incomplete retelling of the Scooter Libby - Valerie Plame investigation. A major reason Dick Cheney pushed for the pardon was that he was not the original leaker. That person, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, was not even mentioned in your article. No underlying national-security crime was committed by the accidental leak of Plame's name (as demonstrated by the lack of charges), and as such, Libby's perjury was ancillary to the investigation. Gregory Eschbacher, Fanwood...
...very interesting to discover points of disagreement between Bush and Cheney and the mood in the White House at that time. However, I am slightly disturbed by your description of George W. Bush as a President who believed in fairness in the judicial system. His attitude toward Libby's pardon is strikingly different from the way matters such as interrogations and extraordinary renditions were dealt with during his term. Naeem Meer, Le Vesinet, France...
Former Vice President Dick Cheney and other members of the Bush Administration might have had a tense weekend. After months of delay and controversy, the Obama Administration is expected on Monday to declassify the 2004 CIA inspector general's report into the agency's interrogation program. Cheney, the most prominent of several Bush-era officials who have vociferously defended the program, faces either vindication or more vilification...
...Critics of the Bush Administration have long claimed that the CIA was itself coerced into using harsh methods. Under this scenario, the agency was pressured by its political masters to go into the "dark side" - a phrase made famous by Cheney in the aftermath of 9/11. Bush backers counter that it was the intelligence professionals who said that hardened al-Qaeda operatives could only be broken in this manner. The IG report may help to establish the origins of the program. If it turns out the agency was forced into employing the harsh techniques, expect even louder calls for indictments...
...Defenders of the harsh interrogation - notably Cheney - claim it yielded a rich vein of information, possibly including details of imminent attacks on the U.S. homeland. But tantalizing references to the IG's findings contained in the now infamous "torture memos" by the Bush Administration Office of Legal Counsel suggest that interrogators didn't get much actionable information out of the detainees. Former CIA Director Michael Hayden said last week that the truth lies somewhere in between: that the program achieved "modest success" - providing the agency with useful information about al-Qaeda organization and leadership, but not necessarily information about attacks...