Bad Deeds for 5-22-2009

Cheney’s Speech Contained Misstatements – In a recent speech, Dick Cheney said that the techniques the Bush administration approved, including waterboarding — simulated drowning that’s considered a form of torture — forced nakedness and sleep deprivation, were “legal” and produced information that “prevented the violent death of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of innocent people.” Cheney quoted the Director of National Intelligence, Adm. Dennis Blair , as saying that the information gave U.S. officials a “deeper understanding of the al Qaida organization that was attacking this country.”

In a statement April 21 , however, Blair said the information “was valuable in some instances” but that “there is no way of knowing whether the same information could have been obtained through other means. The bottom line is that these techniques hurt our image around the world, the damage they have done to our interests far outweighed whatever benefit they gave us and they are not essential to our national security.”

Here’s a rundown of the other “omissions, misstatements and exaggerations” Cheney apparently made:

• Cheney said Obama’s move to release Bush memos on torture was “flatly contrary” to national security. – Fact: National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair “strongly supported” Obama’s decision to release the memos and said “we do not need these techniques to keep America safe.”
• Cheney claimed that the Bush team “moved decisively against the terrorists in their hideouts and their sanctuaries, and committed to using every asset to take down their networks.” – Fact: Osama Bin Laden and his chief lieutenant, Ayman al Zawahri , remain at large. Moreover, the US diverted critical military resources from Afghanistan to Iraq, where al Qaeda was not in force until the US invaded.
• Cheney asserted there was no connection between Bush administration torture and detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib. – Fact: The Senate Armed Services Committee found in December that Abu Ghraib abuses were linked to approval of Bush administration techniques.
• Cheney said “only detainees of the highest intelligence value” were subjected to torture. – Fact: Cheney ignored Abu Zubaydah.
• Cheney said “the key to any strategy is accurate intelligence.” – Fact: The Bush administration used bogus intelligence as a pretense for invading Iraq — including a forgery that purportedly linked Saddam Hussein to an attempt to purchase uranium from Niger.
• Cheney ignored the recently “suicided” al Qaida operative Ali Mohamed al Fakheri, who provided bogus intelligence about Iraq’s links to al Qaeda.
• Cheney said Obama selectively released documents on Bush detainee policies. – Fact: A decision to withhold documents Cheney requested for declassification was made by the CIA under a standing order from President George W. Bush.
• Cheney claimed that only “ruthless enemies of this country” were detained by US agents and sent to secret prisons and Guantanamo. – Fact: “A 2008 McClatchy investigation, however, found that the vast majority of Guantanamo detainees captured in 2001 and 2002 in Afghanistan and Pakistan were innocent citizens or low-level fighters of little intelligence value who were turned over to American officials for money or because of personal or political rivalries.”

Fear of Prosecution Caused Cheney to Speak Out, Daughter Says – Elizabeth Cheney told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that her father decided to speak out after he learned there was a possibility of legal action.

Republican National Committee Uses Controversial ‘Daisy’ Ad to Target Obama – The Republican National Committee Friday unearthed one of the most controversial political ads in American history to take aim at President Obama’s decision to close the detention center in Guantanamo Bay.

Called “Daisy,” The RNC’s new 30-second Web ad uses footage of the now-infamous 1964 Lyndon Johnson commercial by the same name that showed a young girl picking off the pedals of a flower as a nuclear explosion is heard in the background.

That ad, which only ran once but was widely criticized as being extreme, ends with the image of a mushroom crowd and Johnson declaring, “We must either love each other, or we must die.”

The New RNC ad splices the image of the girl with Obama’s earlier declaration suggesting that closing Guantanamo Bay is “easy.” This time the girl asks “To close it? To close it not?” as she picks off flower pedals.

Conservative Radio Host Gets Waterboarded, and Lasts Six Seconds Before Saying its Torture – Chicago radio host Erich “Mancow” Muller decided he’d get himself waterboarded to prove the technique wasn’t torture. It didn’t turn out that way. “Mancow,” in fact, lasted just six or seven seconds before crying foul.

“I wanted to prove it wasn’t torture,” Mancow said. “They cut off our heads, we put water on their face…I got voted to do this but I really thought ‘I’m going to laugh this off.’… It is way worse than I thought it would be, and that’s no joke,” Mancow told listeners. “It is such an odd feeling to have water poured down your nose with your head back…It was instantaneous…and I don’t want to say this: absolutely torture.”

George W. Bush Did NOT Keep Us Safe – Here’s a few examples of how George W. Bush did NOT keep us safe:

• During George W. Bush’s Presidency, thousands of soldiers died in Iraq–a war we now know without question to have been waged as part of an ideological program, not out of necessity. Those thousands of soldiers each had parents, husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, children, and hometowns dragged through the cruel stop-gap policies imposed on service men and women by George W. Bush.
• During George W. Bush’s Presidency, tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers were injured, only to return to the squalid conditions and cruel indifference of a veterans’ care medical system that fell through the cracks of America’s for-profit healthcare racket. The tragedy of our injured soldiers came to light during George W. Bush’s Presidency.
• During George W. Bush’s Presidency, the number of Americans living in abject fear for lack of health insurance reached the tens of millions. More Americans were subject to death and disease. As a result of this crisis of fear, a private medical relief agency initially set up to fly doctors to remote jungles in South America began flying relief into poor American communities.
• During George W. Bush’s Presidency, the deadliest terrorist attack in U.S. history occurred.
• During George W. Bush’s Presidency, the tragic death of thousands occurred in New Orleans.
• During George W. Bush’s Presidency, the citizens of nearly all American foreign allies began to view the United States as a hostile threat to world peace, safety, and security as a result of (1) the preemptive invasion policies of Dick Cheney and (2) the torture-of-prisoners policies of Dick Cheney, turning some of those people toward terrorism.
• During George W. Bush’s Presidency, job security for working communities dropped, underemployment reached historic highs, and earned wages for worker output stagnated. People could not provide care for their families.
• During George W. Bush’s Presidency, corporations and fat-cats defrauded private citizens, retirement funds, and not-for-profit organizations out of billions of dollars.
• During George W. Bush’s Presidency, the United States impeded global cooperation to lower carbon emissions levels, thereby increasing the destructive potential of [climate change].
• During George W. Bush’s Presidency, pet food produced in China was discovered as the cause of deaths for American dogs and cats contaminated by toxic melamine, resulting in a nationwide panic.
• During George W. Bush’s Presidency, ecoli contamination killed multiple people who had ate spinach, tomatoes, and peppers.
• During George W. Bush’s Presidency, elderly Americans panicked over shortages of flu vaccines.
• During George W. Bush’s Presidency the largest gun massacre on a university campus occurred at Virginia Tech, resulting in the violent deaths of 5 faculty members and 27 students.
• During George W. Bush’s Presidency, the CIA at the bequest of Dick Cheney tortured prisoners using techniques in direct violation of U.S. and international law, dramatically increasing the likelihood that captured U.S. prisoners in the future will also be subject to torture.

And that is just to name a few, but you get the point. So, remind me again: How did George W. Bush’s policies keep us safe? Call me crazy, but I just do not see it.

Texas to Use Stimulus Funds to Repair the Governor’s Mansion After Governor Criticizes Stimulus Funds – While Gov. Rick Perry is criticizing Washington bailouts, state lawmakers are planning to use $11 million in federal stimulus money to help rebuild the badly burned Texas Governor’s Mansion. Approximately $10 million in state tax money will also be spent on a renovation, which is expected to cost about $20 million, officials said Thursday. Perry has railed against federal bailouts and what he called the free-spending, power-hungry ways of Washington. In January, he said Texas was endangered by Uncle Sam’s “audacity.”

Conservative University Bans Democratic Club – Liberty University — the largest evangelical university in the world — has revoked its recognition of the campus Democratic Party club. In their explanation, the university said they were “unable to lend support to a club whose parent organization stands against the moral principles held by” the school.

Liberty’s vice president of student affairs Mark Hine penned an email to the group’s chief, saying the club must immediately desist from using the university’s name, holding meetings on campus or advertising events — and that violations could, if frequent, result in expulsion.

“We are in no way attempting to stifle free speech,” Hine quipped when asked about the email on Thursday by the Lynchburg News and Advance. “We looked at each club and organization to determine where it stood and unfortunately this one kind of got in the sights of policy, if you will.”

Update: After being criticized for the ban, Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr. has now said the Democratic club can exist but cannot use the University’s name.

Regards,

Jim