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Saturday, July 25, 2009

The pathetic, frightened little man that lives behind the Dick Cheney mask

Posted by Jill | 7:54 AM

It's long been fascinating to me how utter, pants-crapping, complete and total fear became somehow synonymous with toughness after the September 11 attacks. The more afraid you were, the more you bought a Hummer and duct tape and plastic sheeting, the more of a patriot and a tough guy you were. I'm still not sure how that equation works.

And no one was more of a frightened, craven, small man about Al Qaeda than Dick Cheney. Huddled for possibly years in his underground bunker where the boogeyman wouldn't get him at the same time as New Yorkers who fled that city on foot on that day returned to work BECAUSE THEY HAD TO; because they didn't have the luxury of fear, it's ironic and mysterious that this chickenshit asshole is still being touted by his daughter on national television as being The Guy To Defend America™.

When you look at all the faux-macho posturing of the Bush years from even the small amount of distance we have now, it's difficult to believe how a country could be so taken in my what would have been called hysteria if perpetrated by a woman instead of a dour man with a perpetual snarl who could shoot a friend in the face and then get the friend to apologize.

But now, as many of us suspected at the time, Dick Cheney was perfectly willing to send the military into the streets of America, knocking on suburban doors in search of terrorists:

Some of the advisers to President George W. Bush, including Vice President Dick Cheney, argued that a president had the power to use the military on domestic soil to sweep up the terrorism suspects, who came to be known as the Lackawanna Six, and declare them enemy combatants.

Mr. Bush ultimately decided against the proposal to use military force.

A decision to dispatch troops into the streets to make arrests has few precedents in American history, as both the Constitution and subsequent laws restrict the military from being used to conduct domestic raids and seize property.

The Fourth Amendment bans “unreasonable” searches and seizures without probable cause. And the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 generally prohibits the military from acting in a law enforcement capacity.

In the discussions, Mr. Cheney and others cited an Oct. 23, 2001, memorandum from the Justice Department that, using a broad interpretation of presidential authority, argued that the domestic use of the military against Al Qaeda would be legal because it served a national security, rather than a law enforcement, purpose.

“The president has ample constitutional and statutory authority to deploy the military against international or foreign terrorists operating within the United States,” the memorandum said.

The memorandum — written by the lawyers John C. Yoo and Robert J. Delahunty — was directed to Alberto R. Gonzales, then the White House counsel, who had asked the department about a president’s authority to use the military to combat terrorist activities in the United States.

The memorandum was declassified in March. But the White House debate about the Lackawanna group is the first evidence that top American officials, after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, actually considered using the document to justify deploying the military into an American town to make arrests.

The most benevolent explanation for this is that Cheney was so freaked out by the 9/11 attacks that he overreacted and his eight-year campaign to eliminate Americans' right to be left alone by their government was simply a misguided overreaction to the attacks. Given what we know about Cheney, and given that the guilty pleas of the so-called "Lackawanna Six" and others arrested on terrorism charges were apparently the only way to avoid being given "enemy combatant" status and that the talk of "wedding" and "big meal" by one of what the Bush Administration called a sleeper cell was actually about the wedding of one of them and a big meal, it's hard to imagine that this trial balloon of having tanks roll down the streets of America was just about arresting a few guys in upstate New York.

Labels: Dick Cheney, fascism

4 comments

4 Comments:

Melina said...

y'know, I wasnt so shocked to read this news last night as I was just feeling like its more of the same but to the 10th power.
After goign deeper and reading your post, Ive come to the conclusion that they shoulda done it! It would have been a real illustration to the American people of who they were/are, and how people live in this world.
The rest is illusion and happy wishes about such quaint ideas as rights and the American dream...oh how I wish they had sent in the full metal jacket snipers and a couple/few divisions to take over the neighborhood.
Thats how you get standoffs and houses blown up, as I recall from the not so distant past...but also it would be illustrative of how we are not all that different from any other country with a dictatorship....
and actually, it might even have sent a message to the nasty terror cells overseas that they are NOT safe on American soil...
But actually, our military is not trained to carry out that sort of domestic action and thats why we have the FBI and SWAT...right?...
why would we need the military to take those guys when we have elite domestic police agencies?
Thats the real question for me.

7/25/09, 11:32 AM

Cirze said...

I have never thought Cheney was freaked out by anything that happened on 9/11 (although he certainly has looked it many times), and I beg to differ about his seeming craven stance (pose).

From my research it seems obvious that he knew exactly what had occurred that morning, although being a natural coward actually made him look good (and rattled) on that day.

He certainly knew from the first. Witness the events around W.'s reading of the goat story after the first jet had hit and Cheney was already in control.

Waaaaaaaaaaayyy before they admitted it. And would not testify about it under oath.

S

7/25/09, 1:33 PM

Spocko said...

In the book, "The Dark Side" it is explained that Cheney started looking at "raw intelligence" with no filter from the CIA or the FBI.

So any person hearing voices who talked about planning a "birthday party" who has an unfortunate last name was put on the list with not comment from the CIA saying, "This guy is insane, he talks to pink ponies and flying bears, he's a drunk and a nut but his last name is bin Laden so we are listening to him to be complete.)

And Meyer's thinks that this sent him further over the edge because reading all this made him jump at shadows. Meyer's is very generous with her understanding of Cheney, but that doesn't mean he was right to choose to read the unanalyzed data in the first place.

With his secret "National Security" stories based on crazy people he could always say, 'I've seen stuff that would curl your hair, they are out to kill us!" and the questioner couldn't say, "Prove it!" because it was all classified. It was the perfect excuse. And if something WAS disproved he could say, 'I wasn't talking about THAT, I was talking about other intelligence."

This ability to hold secret knowledge made any attacks on his credibility almost impossible to disprove.

He also used the word "relationship' very broadly and nobody forced him to clarify it and call him a word twister when he did.

"Vice President Cheney, you claim that AQ had a relationship with Saddam. But we know that that "relationship" consisted of AQ wanting money and Saddam saying no. This is the same relationship I have with a telemarketer for carpet cleaning. They want my money, I say no. Now technically that is a relationship but we aren't working together.

Now, I need you to explain to me and the American people the source of other "relationships" with Saddam that have any real bearing and don't be siting "National security because I have hear a sealed room filled with experts from the CIA who have all the security clearances you do and they will tell us what level of credibility each of these have. Oh and by the way, you are under oath."

7/25/09, 6:01 PM

Distributorcap said...

dick cheney is not doubt the worst piece of shit that has ever walked on american soil - personally responsible for the death of over 4000 americans and countless iraqis

but yet the "deference" the msm still pays to him is quite incredulous

when cheney finally meets his maker (and you know what we are all thinking) - they will have to hide his grave since way too many people will want to urinate on it.

7/26/09, 6:20 AM