Boston Globe: Questions for Cheney

[dennis4868]

INEVITABLY, TONIGHT'S debate between Vice President Dick Cheney and candidate John Edwards will be shaped by the public's awareness of Cheney's unusual role as a prime mover behind the Bush administration's decision to topple Saddam Hussein. Because of the widespread perception that the war in Iraq is at least as much Cheney's war as President Bush's, both debaters tonight must come to grips with Cheney's performance as the official who steered Bush toward the invasion of Iraq and infuriated intelligence professionals by ignoring assessments that did not suit his policy aims and spotlighting others that did.

Cheney should be offered a chance tonight to explain his immersion in the evaluation of intelligence about Iraq and his related visits to CIA headquarters. He has said he was not trying to intimidate CIA analysts on those visits but merely asking them the appropriate hard questions.

A recent New York Times report on the administration's misleading characterization of aluminum tubes Saddam had purchased -- they were for rockets, not nuclear centrifuges -- illustrates how Cheney's cherry-picking of intelligence disfigured the relationship between intelligence-gathering and policy-making.

More here...http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2004/10/05/questions_for_cheney/

[jrthin]

1. Unfortunately, we need a real press corp

for questions like those to be asked and answered.