Thursday, May 21, 2009

Cheney can't stop lying (UPDATE)

Today, both President Obama and former Vice-President Cheney came out with dueling addresses about national security, the CIA and torture.

Dick Cheney quotes Obama's current Director National Intelligence Admiral Dennis Blair as saying, "High value information came from interrogations in which those methods were used and provided a deeper understanding of the al Qa’ida organization that was attacking this country."

Wow, sounds like I have to re-evaluate my understanding of torture, no?  maybe the Constitution has become a quaint document that is no longer relevant to our safety.  

But wait, the rest of Blair's April quote: "“The information gained from these techniques was valuable in some instances, but there is no way of knowing whether the same information could have been obtained through other means.  The bottom line is these techniques have hurt our image around the world, the damage they have done to our interests far outweighed whatever benefit they gave us and they are not essential to our national security." (emphasis mine)

And in January Blair said, "I believe strongly that torture is not moral, legal or effective."

Dick Cheney's lie of omission is outrageous and borderline treasonous.  He really needs to be indicted on something, anything.

UPDATE:
McClatchy has a more exhaustive run-down of the lies, half-truths and omissions throughout Cheney's short speech.  (Here.)  

1 comment:

Denise said...

He can't help it... he is constituently predisposed to lying when he opens his mouth to speak.

What I cannot fathom is why anyone accords him any degree of credibility.

He was adamant about knowing where those WMDs were located. Wrong.

He was adamant about the connection between al-Qaida and Iraq. Wrong.

And now we're supposed to credit him with being an authoritative source on the utility of torture?

Give me a break.