Cheney Tells Jim Lehrer Tonight: No Torture, Few Mistakes, Economy Not Our Fault

[kpete]

Cheney Tells Jim Lehrer Tonight: No Torture, Few Mistakes, Economy Not Our Fault

By Greg Mitchell

Published: January 14, 2009 4:35 PM ET

NEW YORK In an exit interview with PBS's Jim Lehrer on the NewsHour airing tonight, Vice President Cheney repeats claims that Saddam Hussein worked with al-Qaeda. Asked if he made any mistakes in his eight years as V.P., Cheney only mentions underestimating the psychological harm Saddam had done to his own people. He said his administration bore no blame for the economic problem and the terror threat was inherited because of the poor handling by previous presidents.

And he shrugged off a statement today by a key figure, who used to work under him, calling the handling of one terror suspect out-and-out "torture."

Here is the transcript of that exchange, followed by the rest of the transcript.
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003930623

[SammyWinstonJack]

1. Words fail.

x(

[SharonAnn]

2. Other than it being a curiosity to see how some people embrance DENIAL,

who expected him to say anything different? I could probably have written his answers to those questions for him (Cheney) and they'd be pretty much what he said.


After wrecking our economy, wrecking our international standing, indebting our descendants for generations, basically 'breaking the world", and enriching themselves and their cronies with our tax money they strut out saying "It's not my fault!"

Really, they're just children, stuck in childlike immaturity. The unfortunate thing is that because of the positions they've held, they were very dangerous.

[nebenaube]

4. It's not his fault... we 'the people' let him do it.

And since he won't be prosecuted it will happen again and again and again and again and again. You get the picture.

[muntrv]

3. Produce the evidence or drop the crap, dickie!

[Tangerine LaBamba]

5. The gall!!!

All those dead Iraqis got what they had coming because - why? - because they were "so beaten down psychologically by Saddam Hussein."

This miserable fuck should just go up in smoke and disappear.

He's really a horrible excuse for a human being.

[Ohio Joe]

6. The worst part is...

That I think he really believes what he is saying. An insane individual.

[Postman]

7. Yeah. 2.5 million people quit their jobs just to make these clowns look bad...

It's all their fault....

And it's all the CIA's fault for Iraq because they didn't do their job in refuting our bullshit, made-up intelligence......they should have called out our lies.....

And it's the fault of all them damn ni**ers in New Orleans for not knowing how to swim during Katrina....

[DrDan]

8. he has lied for the past 8 years - why stop now

[4 t 4]

9. Go Fuck yourself Mr Cheney

Mr Cheney go Fuck yourself. Did I get the order right ? Whatever you get the point!

[DrDan]

13. somehow I think those words would bounce right off of him . . .

one thing for sure - he cares nothing of how we feel toward him

[malaise]

10. I'll be watching live on PBS in a few minutes

Thanks

[Old and In the Way]

11. Someone should ask this prick, what, in his opinion would define

an incompetent and disastrous administration. If he really thinks this administration has done nothing wrong, his definition of incompetent and disastrous should be eye opening.

[Aviation Pro]

12. Yes it was; yer fucking kidding me, Shitstain; and yes it was....

...Go-Fuck-Yourself.

[santamargarita]

14. Exactly what time next Tuesday does this stumpy little turd leave?

Whatever time is left is way too much

[kohodog]

20. Perhaps the whole nation should flush their toilets at noon on Tuesday.

[OwnedByFerrets]

15. Pisses me off that he even gets the damned air time.

[Johonny]

16. I guess I'm glad

these idiots want to go on record at last. One last round of being wrong to help make their legacy really easy to write.

[malaise]

17. He says they won reelection confortably

Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! They stole two elections damn it.

[spanone]

18. evidently cheney didn't read this mornings paper...they tortured..according to bu$h* official

Detainee Tortured, Says U.S. Official
Trial Overseer Cites 'Abusive' Methods Against 9/11 Suspect
By Bob Woodward
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 14, 2009; A01

The top Bush administration official in charge of deciding whether to bring Guantanamo Bay detainees to trial has concluded that the U.S. military tortured a Saudi national who allegedly planned to participate in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, interrogating him with techniques that included sustained isolation, sleep deprivation, nudity and prolonged exposure to cold, leaving him in a "life-threatening condition."

"We tortured Qahtani," said Susan J. Crawford, in her first interview since being named convening authority of military commissions by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates in February 2007. "His treatment met the legal definition of torture. And that's why I did not refer the case" for prosecution.

Crawford, a retired judge who served as general counsel for the Army during the Reagan administration and as Pentagon inspector general when Dick Cheney was secretary of defense, is the first senior Bush administration official responsible for reviewing practices at Guantanamo to publicly state that a detainee was tortured.

Crawford, 61, said the combination of the interrogation techniques, their duration and the impact on Qahtani's health led to her conclusion. "The techniques they used were all authorized, but the manner in which they applied them was overly aggressive and too persistent. . . . You think of torture, you think of some horrendous physical act done to an individual. This was not any one particular act; this was just a combination of things that had a medical impact on him, that hurt his health. It was abusive and uncalled for. And coercive. Clearly coercive. It was that medical impact that pushed me over the edge" to call it torture, she said.

Military prosecutors said in November that they would seek to refile charges against Qahtani, 30, based on subsequent interrogations that did not employ harsh techniques. But Crawford, who dismissed war crimes charges against him in May 2008, said in the interview that she would not allow the prosecution to go forward.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/13/AR2009011303372_pf.html

[kohodog]

19. Dick Cheney spent way to much time in his undisclosed bunker

He's a) delusional or b) pathological or c) both.

I had to shut it off and apologize to my family when he said that the lousy economy had nothing to do with Bush.

Good riddance rat bastard. (apologies to rats and other vermin). Please go back to your undisclosed location and stay there.

Sometimes it feels good to vent. The nightmare may be coming to an end but the therapy is going to cost us all.

[Sequoia]

21. He needs to be picked up and waterboarded.

How's that for a no-brainer you bastard!!

[PerfectSage]

22. Someone should ask the useless asshole what his definition of "intellectual and moral failure is."

[jazzjunkysue]

23. I've heard absurd minimizations and scapegoating for years. I teach middle school.

I do this for a living.

[rosesaylavee]

24. Hmmmm. So now he says they DIDN'T torture?

Could it be that his buddy, 43 isn't going to give him a blanket pardon afterall? Wasn't he all about the torture deal last month?

Cheeenee. We will come for you and you will wear the orange suit. Sooner than you think.

[GreenTea]

25. Economy, not the republicans fault, .almost hysterical if not for the reality...