Cheney: "a great many lives have been saved...with this program"

[sabra]

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/white_house/jan-june06/cheney_02-07.html



<snip>

JIM LEHRER: You told CNN last week that thousands of lives have been saved by this NSA surveillance program. Are we talking about American lives have been saved?

VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY: I can't go beyond that. I do believe that a great many lives have been saved because of what we've been able to do with this program.

JIM LEHRER: According to what the president has said, this only involves conversations between people who are believed to have al-Qaida contacts, international calls. You're saying that those calls by themselves have saved lives, thousands of lives?

VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY: I'm saying this program has produced intelligence for us that has been very valuable in the global war on terror both in terms of saving lives and breaking up plots directed at the United States. It has been a very useful source of intelligence for us and we need to continue the program.

JIM LEHRER: I just want to make sure I understand what you're saying. If we had not had this program, Americans would have been killed in terrorist attacks by al-Qaida or related organizations?

VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY: That's my belief.


JIM LEHRER: It's just a belief or is it--

VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY: No, and I think it's based on the facts, Jim, but I cannot talk about operational details. You're going to ask those questions, but we're not going to get into them. This has been one of the most important sources of intelligence we've had during the global war on terror. It's not an accident that we haven't been struck in the last four years. Some people think well it's just dumb luck. No, it's not. It's because the president has made some very good decisions, because we've had first-rate military and intelligence capabilities working on this problem, it's because we've aggressively gone after the terrorists wherever we could find them, and it's because we've had very good intelligence.

This program has been an important part of that intelligence capability. And as I said, the tragedy is, now that it has become the subject of so much discussion in the press and in the public arena that there is a real danger here that we will lose our capabilities in this area and will not have the kind of intelligence going forward that we've had in the past that has made it possible for us to successfully defend the nation against terrorist attacks. It doesn't mean there won't be future attacks. There may well be. We're working on it every day. But the fact is we have not been struck in over four years and that's because of a lot of good work by very able and capable people.

JIM LEHRER: And this NSA surveillance program?

VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY: And this is part of it.

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Leopolds Ghost]

13. Cheney: "Many Bothans died to bring us this information." n/t

[SPKrazy]

2. Bullshit Dick!

Hiding behind national security won't cut it!

We want PROOF that this has actually saved American lives

I think it has just helped Repuke political lives through blackmail or graymail through NSA spying on Americans.

[Kansas Wyatt]

7. Maybe he did actually mean "lives"

Maybe he and his ilk fear that the American people would be lynching them if the truth about them were to ever be revealed, and those are the lives he is talking about.

However, if they spy on their opponents and they stay ahead of the game by keeping Republicans and themselves in power, then they have the power to keep it all covered up and avoid the lynching.

[DRoseDARs]

3. Given this illegal spying started BEFORE 9/11, thus preventing it...

...I'm guessing 9/11 didn't really happen, right? :crazy:

[Liberal_Dog]

4. Cheney: "Iraq Has Reconstituted Nuclear Weapons"

eom

[Mythsaje]

5. Based upon WHAT, Darth Cheney?

Since not one person has been arrested or even accused of a crime because of the program?

Are we really that gullible?

Well, not us...but Americans?

Don't answer that.

[mzmolly]

6. So how did Clinton prevent attacks by Osama on US soil without said

program?

Does anyone believe "last throws" Cheney anymore?

[FormerRepublican]

8. Jeezus - this sounds like his nucular lies. Do they EVER tell the truth?

[Arkansas Granny]

9. And the unspoken, but implied, phrase: "Just trust me".

Can't talk about detail, won't give any specifics. That might give our enemies some kind of knowledge blah blah blah. Protecting the American people blah blah blah. Are we really expected to believe anything that falls out of this man's mouth?

[Flying Dream Blues]

10. I really, truly do NOT know how much more of this I can take. nt.

[0007]

11. Listening to Mike Malloy this evening, and had to laugh at this

statement he made about Cheney. He said, "He'd be lying if he said good morning to ya at 9:00am"

I watched the Jim Lehrer News hours and Cheney was on for 45 minutes, making threats and throwing a hissy over the bi-partisanship of the spying thingie.

[0007]

12. Listening to Mike Malloy this evening, and had to laugh at this

statement he made about Cheney. He said, "He'd be lying if he said good morning to ya at 9:00am"

I watched the Jim Lehrer News hours and Cheney was on for 45 minutes, making threats and throwing a hissy over the bi-partisanship of the spying thingie. And making indirect black mailing threats.

[The_Casual_Observer]

14. This is all time classic cheney! Making an outrageously false claim

out of the blue and stand tall. Saved lives my ass.

[northofdenali]

15. Hey, Dickhead?

Name one.