Cheney Staff Engaged in Insubordination Against President Bush

[laststeamtrain]

The Washington Note--Steve Clemons


<snip>

Multiple sources have reported that a senior aide on Vice President Cheney's national security team has been meeting with policy hands of the American Enterprise Institute, one other think tank, and more than one national security consulting house and explicitly stating that Vice President Cheney does not support President Bush's tack towards Condoleezza Rice's diplomatic efforts and fears that the President is taking diplomacy with Iran too seriously.

This White House official has stated to several Washington insiders that Cheney is planning to deploy an "end run strategy" around the President if he and his team lose the policy argument.

The thinking on Cheney's team is to collude with Israel, nudging Israel at some key moment in the ongoing standoff between Iran's nuclear activities and international frustration over this to mount a small-scale conventional strike against Natanz using cruise missiles (i.e., not ballistic missiles).

This strategy would sidestep controversies over bomber aircraft and overflight rights over other Middle East nations and could be expected to trigger a sufficient Iranian counter-strike against US forces in the Gulf -- which just became significantly larger -- as to compel Bush to forgo the diplomatic track that the administration realists are advocating and engage in another war.

There are many other components of the complex game plan that this Cheney official has been kicking around Washington. The official has offered this commentary to senior staff at AEI and in lunch and dinner gatherings which were to be considered strictly off-the-record, but there can be little doubt that the official actually hopes that hawkish conservatives and neoconservatives share this information and then rally to this point of view. This official is beating the brush and doing what Joshua Muravchik has previously suggested -- which is to help establish the policy and political pathway to bombing Iran.

The zinger of this information is the admission by this Cheney aide that Cheney himself is frustrated with President Bush and believes, much like Richard Perle, that Bush is making a disastrous mistake by aligning himself with the policy course that Condoleezza Rice, Bob Gates, Michael Hayden and McConnell have sculpted.

<more>

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/002145.php

[Tellurian]

1. Bush is getting Cold Feet!

He knows he's pushed the envelope as far as he dares. Bombing Iran would have him in jeopardy of, should I say it?, a military coup at home. Their schedule seems to be dictated by the completion time of the Embassy Fortress in Baghdad. I had predicted around Labor Day all Hell will break loose. Bush mentioned Aug/Sept today in his news briefing today as a "Bloody Month" I do believe he is serious about that. Congress dragging their heels over the IRW vote today is definitely causing an interruption in their plans. If we can't get what we want in time-lines and holding back funding the War..then we must at least keep dragging our feet with veto after veto until the WH strategy blows up in their faces and becomes a road to nowhere for this administration..

[krkaufman]

2. See related LBN article, referencing this article

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2857722

[laststeamtrain]

3. Thanks. I hadn't noticed it. n/t

[applegrove]

4. Maybe these leaks are an end run around Cheney by *? Just a thought.

[Tellurian]

5. I dunno about that..

If they arrested Cheney, he'd threaten to expose the whole cabal. So, I tend to think whats been published up to now, is hyped BS..