Lest We Forget, Cheney: The 'Steamroller' Behind the Iraq Quagmire

[G_j]

Lest we forget, Cheney probably bears more responsibility for pushing America into an illegal and unnecessary war than any other individual. His bloody fingerprints are all over the Iraq tragedy. Here are just a couple of articles. There are also dozens of public statements (lies) Cheney has made about Iraq. I didn't take the time to dig them up here, but feel free to add any you might have.

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http://www.alternet.org/story/16283

Not Business as Usual: Cheney and the CIA

By Ray McGovern, AlterNet. Posted June 30, 2003.


An old CIA hand who has briefed vice-presidents says the current Veep’s forays to Langley were unprecedented.

As though this were normal! I mean the repeated visits Vice President Dick Cheney made to the CIA before the war in Iraq. The visits were, in fact, unprecedented. During my 27-year career at the Central Intelligence Agency, no vice president ever came to us for a working visit.

During the '80s, it was my privilege to brief Vice President George H.W. Bush and other very senior policy makers every other morning. I went either to the vice president's office or (on weekends) to his home. I am sure it never occurred to him to come to CIA headquarters.

The morning briefings gave us an excellent window on what was uppermost in the minds of those senior officials and helped us refine our tasks of collection and analysis. Thus, there was never any need for policy makers to visit us. And the very thought of a vice president dropping by to help us with our analysis is extraordinary. We preferred to do that work without the pressure that inevitably comes from policy makers at the table.

Cheney got into the operational side of intelligence as well. Reports in late 2001 that Iraq had tried to acquire uranium from Niger stirred such intense interest that his office let it be known he wanted them checked out. So, with the CIA as facilitator, a retired U.S. ambassador was dispatched to Niger in February 2002 to investigate. He found nothing to substantiate the report and lots to call it into question. There the matter rested -- until last summer, after the Bush administration made the decision for war in Iraq.

..more..
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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/04/15/60minutes/main612067.shtml

<snip>
In his book, Woodward describes Cheney as a "powerful, steamrolling force obsessed with Saddam and taking him out."

"Colin Powell, the secretary of state, saw this in Cheney to such an extent, he, Powell, told colleagues that ‘Cheney has a fever. It is an absolute fever. It’s almost as if nothing else exists,’” says Woodward, who adds that Cheney had plenty of opportunities to convince the president.

”He’s just down the hall in the West Wing from the president. President says, ‘I meet with him all the time.’ Cheney's back in the corner or sitting on the couch at nearly all of these meetings.”

<snip>

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[soothsayer]

1. I wouldn't want to find that thing sitting in my corner or on my couch

Ick!

[G_j]

2. KICK