If his nose was made out of wood, we wouldn't need to import from Canada for about 50 years.
Let's see, Judges, Bolton, Iraq, Torture, Newsweek, North Korea, and Stem Cells. All on Larry King Live.
On more on the human rights side, go to this diary'
For the rest of it, I think I'm going to need a bigger shovel....
Where to begin?
How about this:
KING: Let me get to some items in the news, and later I want to discuss your whole career. It's been an extraordinary career, living here et cetera. What do you make of the Bolton extension? Now we go to June.
D. CHENEY: Well, it's -- we're here on a week break, in effect, coming up -- week-long break for the Senate. Then they'll come back. We've got the votes to confirm him. I'm convinced we will get him confirmed. There's been a lot of talk these last few days since they put together a sort of gang of 14 that negotiated an arrangement on the judges that somehow now we've entered a new era of bipartisan cooperation that lasted about 48-hours, and the Democrats filibuster Bolton. But I think we'll get him through. He's a good man. He'll do a great job at the United Nations. We got 57 votes yesterday. We just need three more and I think we'll get those when they come back.
KING: They're asking for some more information, and the question arises, why not give it?
D. CHENEY: Well, the information that they've requested basically has been made available to the chairman and ranking member of the Intelligence Committees. But there are certain types of information that's sensitive that we protect and that goes only to a particular committee, say the Intelligence Committee, or if it's really sensitive, only to the top Republican and Democrat on the committee.
There's nothing there. This material has been reviewed, the information they're asking for. I think it's just an excuse. There's nothing being hidden from them that they don't know or that members of the Senate aren't already aware of.
Senator Roberts, who's the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, got up on the floor the other day and explained that he'd been through all this material and that there's absolutely nothing there to be of concern.
So in other words, he's saying the Democrats got all the information except the sensitive stuff that the Republicans must protect from prying eyes but don't worry because the Top Republican on Intelligence from Ohio who took money from Coingate criminals said there's nothing important there so why are Democrats breaking the deal on Filibusters already?
Yeah, that makes PERFECT sense. I'd trust a Republican from Ohio about as far I could throw them.
KING: Amnesty International condemns the United States. How do you react?
D. CHENEY: I don't take them seriously?
KING: Not at all?
D. CHENEY: No. I -- frankly, I was offended by it. I think the fact of the matter is, the United States has done more to advance the cause of freedom, has liberated more people from tyranny over the course of the 20th century and up to the present day than any other nation in the history of the world. Think about what we did in World War I, World War II, throughout the Cold War. Just in this administration, we've liberated 50 million people from the Taliban in Afghanistan and from Saddam Hussein in Iraq, two terribly oppressive regimes that slaughtered hundreds of thousands of their own people. For Amnesty International to suggest that somehow the United States is a violator of human rights, I frankly just don't take them seriously.
Oh where to begin with this whopper?
Perhaps the Internment Camps of WW II? The murders and beatings of Civil Rights Activists during the Civil Rights Movement? Heck, Abu Ghraib.
You can do great good and STILL do great evil too, having one does not necessarily mean the other doesn't exist.
As for 'liberation', 50 million people no longer have a working GOVERNMENT anymore. Bad as the Taliban were, the Afghanis PICKED THEM over the Warlords because they were SICK of the chaos and constant fighting caused by the rival factions. Bush and Cheney even SIDED with the Taliban before 9/11 because it was cutting the Heroin trade down.
As for Iraq, 2 years after the invasion social services have all but collapsed. People drink sewer water, electricity is worse now then before, gas and fuel have shot up to unheard of levels, the roads are deathtraps, and the Iraqis have to worry about their 'liberators' shooting them, blowing them up, dragging them off in the night, torturing them, raping them, murdering them....the only way to excuse that as not violating human rights is to dismiss the Iraqis as being human.
And sadly that attitude wouldn't suprise me from Republicans anymore.
KING: They specifically said, though, it was Guantanamo. They compared it to a gulag.
D. CHENEY: Not true. Guantanamo's been operated, I think, in a very sane and sound fashion by the U.S. military. Remember who's down there. These are people that were picked up off the battlefield in Afghanistan and other places in the global war on terror. These are individuals who have been actively involved as the enemy, if you will, trying to kill Americans. That we need to have a place where we can keep them. In a sense, when you're at war, you keep prisoners of war until the war is over with.
Oopsie, looks like Cheney just forgot his talking points. Prisoners of War have certain RIGHTS, rights Bush and Co. have long fought to deny them. And frankly, most of the detainees were snatched by other nation's forces....usually for a cash reward. I'd think you'd want to be CERTAIN before lableing them as 'terrorists', since imprisoning the wrong people could look like HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS.
We've also been able to derive significant amounts of intelligence from them that helped us understand better the organization and the adversary we face and helped us gather the kind of information that makes it possible for us to defend the United States against further attacks.
And what we're doing down there has, I think, been done perfectly appropriately. I think these people have been well treated, treated humanely and decently.
Occasionally there are allegations of mistreatment. But if you trace those back, in nearly every case, it turns out to come from somebody who had been inside and been released by to their home country and now are peddling lies about how they were treated.
That's funny, last I heard from Guantanamo from our own military they said they weren't getting any worthwhile intelligence from the people they were torturing.
Of course, isn't it interesting that Cheney's insisting that every person who's been in Guantanamo and complained is a liar? I mean, they've only actually been in there and were let go for NOT being a terrorist.
And of course given that over one hundred prisoners have DIED in US custody, Cheney's blowing smoke out of his ass again.
But hey, let's give him the benefit of the doubt.
If Dick, Bush, Rumsfield and Rice let me torture them for a few days I bet that I could get PLENTY of good intelligence proving they are all indeed terrorists of the worst kind. After all, where is THEIR proof they aren't America hating religious terrorists?
Speaking of Memorial Day. Every day it seems we hear of more deaths in Iraq -- Iraqis, Americans. Does that give you pause? Did you ever say to yourself, maybe we shouldn't have?
D. CHENEY: No. I'm absolutely convinced we did the right thing in Iraq. Obviously we wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible. We regret every loss of an American in combat any place in the world. One of the difficult things about the job the president has, for example, is he has to make those decisions about when to send young Americans in harm's way. And it was necessary to do in Afghanistan and it was also necessary to do in Iraq.
And it was NOT necessary in Iraq. WMD, 9/11 connection, uranium sale....NOT THERE.
But we're making major progress there. I mean we've got a new government stood up now. They had elections, free elections, really for the first time in centuries in January of this year. They're going to be writing a constitution this summer. That will lead to elections under that constitution. Later this year, there'll be a brand new government in place, duly elected under a newly written constitution by the end of the year.
At the same time, we're training Iraqis to take over the security requirements in Iraq.
The government isn't working, neither are the new security forces. And of course its all historical revisionism for Cheney about why Iraq is 'important'.
D. CHENEY: We'll leave as soon as the task is over with. We haven't set a deadline or a date. It depends upon conditions. We have to achieve our objectives, complete the mission. And the two main requirements are, the Iraqis in a position to be able to govern themselves, and they're well on their way to doing that, and the other is able to defend themselves, and they're well on their way to doing that. They just announced that in the last day or two here, there've been stories about a major movement of some 40,000 Iraqi troops into Baghdad to focus specifically on the problem there.
KING: You expect it in your administration?
D. CHENEY: I do.
In other words, Vietnam in fastforward.
They're going to stick the local turncoats with the security mess and wave byebye as they flee from Iraq on the last helicopter. That Larry King did not catch the irony of Cheney confidently saying being forced to RETAKE Baghdad is a sign of 'progress' is just plain sad.
So I think we're making major progress. And, unfortunately, as I say, it does involve sending young Americans in harm's way. But America will be safer in the long run when Iraq and Afghanistan as well are no longer safe havens for terrorists or places where people can gather and plan and organize attacks against the United States.
Oh great, they came up with yet ANOTHER excuse for the war. To Deny 'Safe Havens', do these dimwits even realize what the hell their talking points mean? Iraq BECAME a haven for terrorists AFTER the invasion.
KING: Have we ever been close to getting bin Laden?
D. CHENEY: Uh...
KING: You can tell us.
D. CHENEY: Well, we've had him on the run, I believe. We've -- clearly, we've dealt a major blow to the al Qaeda organization. We've just recently, for example, working with Pakistan, captured a man named Abu Faraj al-Libbi. He's the number-three man in the organization. He'd replaced Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who we captured a couple of years ago. We've captured or killed literally hundreds or perhaps thousands of the al Qaeda organization. I can't say that we've ever been close to bin Laden.
Dick Cheney discovers that 4 years in a media bubble has its price. Not only is he WAY behind on the information curve here, but he's exposing his own incomptence just like he did on Iraq.
KING: Yes. What do you do with it? How do you deal with it? You're an elected official. You've also been a private official. You're a government -- you're a media person. You get someone you trust. That someone tells you something. What? What's an informed source?
D. CHENEY: Well, an informed source, of course, is a device that allows the press to get access to important information sometimes, and report it. And lots of times, it needs to be reported. But there's a -- clearly needs to be professional standards applied here, adhered to, if you will, practiced by news organizations. They have to be careful not to be taken in or not to go with a major story on a very weak source or fail to check it out or get verification of it. And we're seen examples of that, that people make mistakes from time to time. Public officials do. News organizations do as well too. But I think there's a special obligation on major news organizations, when they're dealing with what can sometimes be life-and-death matters, to get it right.
Hypocrite. With a side order of Freedom Fries.
It would serve the Republicans right if the Democrats or one of our 'liberal' organizations played Cheney's words in an attack ad. Hint hint
KING: Have you, on the administration side, double-checked this Koran story?
D. CHENEY: Yes, we have.
KING: Because there were stories now in the Washington Post that there was some...
D. CHENEY: Well, the main story, remember, was an allegation that somebody had flushed a Koran down the toilet. That was totally bogus. And there's been an extensive investigation now. They've checked every allegation about mistreatment of the Koran. They found that nearly all of those reports were not true, and especially the one that -- about the Koran having been flushed down the toilet. I'm told they went back to the guy who was the original source of that report, and he said, well, he didn't really see it. He'd heard about it from somebody else.
The fact of the matter is it's I think basically been a bum rap. I think our guys have dealt with the Koran with respect in nearly every case. I think a lot of these stories have been promulgated by our adversaries, that is, people who were held at Guantanamo, stories they peddled after they left Guantanamo or after they got out in order to try to discredit the United States.
So who wants to tell Dick Dumbass Cheney that the people being released from Guantanamo Bay were released because they were NOT proven to be Enemies of the USA?
KING: But you can't control the actions of everyone.
D. CHENEY: You can't.
KING: If there's some sergeant somewhere who's doing something right now, you know, what can you do?
D. CHENEY: Occasionally that happens. I can remember when I became secretary of Defense, asking Bill Crowe one day, who was then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, about the stories -- occasionally stories would show up in the press, you know, something going on in the military I didn't know anything about. I said, "What's going on, Bill." He said, "Look, Mr. Secretary," he said, "you know, this is a huge organization. We've got 3- or 4 million people involved." He said, "Imagine the worst possible thing you can think of," and he said, "you can be absolutely certain some place, somebody's doing it." And it was good advice and counsel.
And naturally Cheney ignores that advice in favor of blind dogma.
KING: Are ever -- are you concerned of enrollment being down in the recruitment in the military?
D. CHENEY: Well, we've got to work at it, obviously, and we are. I'm a great believer in the all-volunteer force.
KING: No draft.
D. CHENEY: I don't believe in the draft except under extraordinary circumstances, and we clearly haven't reached that. And the services generally are doing well. The Army's been having a bit of a problem. Of course, they're the ones most intimately involved in operations in Iraq at this stage, so we've got to go out and redouble our efforts in terms of recruiting, especially since we want to keep our standards high.
But I think -- I think we're doing very well at it. The reenlistment rates are very good. Retention's very good of the more senior people, people reenlisting. And you just have to get after it when you reach one of these periods of time when things drop of for one reason or another.
How long has he been in his bunker again? The Army is falling apart with a HUGE wave of experienced mid level officers expected to leave for better pickings in the civilian sector. Better pay and you don't have to worry about IEDs...kinda hard to resist don't you think?
Now to North Korea:
KING: What do we do if they do test?
D. CHENEY: Well, another step if the six-way talks don't work, obviously, would be to go to the U.N. Security Council and seek the applications of economic sanctions that would really close down the North Korean economy.
KING: Do you fear any possible attack there?
D. CHENEY: I -- it'd be extremely foolish for him to launch an attack against anybody. Fact of the matter is, South Korea is very well armed. They've got a very modern, good-sized military. The United States, obviously we've got forces deployed in South Korea. And we're committed to come to the defense of South Korea should they be attacked. I don't think there's any way North Korea can win a conflict.
The danger here is that, being as irresponsible as he has sometimes been in the past, he could serve to destabilize the region, force others to defend themselves by equipping themselves with these kinds of deadly weapons, and that's not in anybody's interest.
Dick Cheney cleverly worms his way out of answering Larry's actual question. It's not a question of whether or not they could win, but if they WOULD actually attack if threatened with sanctions. And while Dick can bluster all he want about South Korea's forces and the US tripwire, most of South Korea's major population centers are right under North Korean Artillery sights. And promises of being able to eventually defeat North Korea wouldn't mean shit to all the dead on our side from the initial attack.
Now on to Stem Cell Research:
KING: But that would make in vitro questionable, wouldn't it?
D. CHENEY: No, it doesn't make in vitro questionable. It's what you do with the embryos that are left over from that process, and whether or not -- I think there are a lot of Americans who have legitimate concerns about having their tax dollars go for what they believe is the destruction of life, because you destroy those embryos. And that's a legitimate ethical question. The president has strong feelings about it. He's been very direct about it. He spent a lot of time on this decision before he made it.
KING: Are your feelings strong too?
D. CHENEY: I do. I basically agree with the policy. I support it.
Never mind that those cytoplasts would be discarded anyway. Recycling unused tissues is wrong, throwing them away is okay. Makes sense to the Fundies.
The first time Bush or Cheney use a stem-cell based medical procedure, slap a 'baby-killer' label on them and let the Rabid Rightwingers turn on their own.