by Larisa Alexandrovna
Somewhere among the strategically placed references to September 11, 2001 and his unapologetic defense of torture, Dick Cheney managed to lie about a series of topics and events that are well documented. It is, after all, the electronic age and facts are not difficult to come by.
One must consider too what motivated the networks to carry a speech by a former Vice President in defense of torture. The ethics vacuum is mind-boggling.
We have come to a point where a former Vice President told the world that America tortures – but calls it something else - and the networks cover this as though it were a random stump speech, not the actual embarrassment and horror that it is. The facts too are missing, although only a few news outlets seem interested in the truth.
No One Could Have Imagined
Cheney says that the attacks of September 11, 2001 “caused everyone to take a serious second look at threats that had been gathering for a while and enemies whose plans were getting bolder and more sophisticated.”
On the contrary, the plans were not new and bold and were well documented by the Central Intelligence Agency. In fact, a month prior to the attacks, President Bush and Dick Cheney both received a briefing on the matter. The August 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing entitled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in the US,” is fairly clear. The PDB mentions the following:
A clandestine source said in 1998 that a Bin Laden cell in New York was recruiting Muslim-American youth for attacks.
We have not been able to corroborate some of the more sensational threat reporting, such as that from a [deleted text] service in 1998 saying that Bin Laden wanted to hijack a U.S. aircraft to gain the release of "Blind Shaykh" 'Umar' Abd aI-Rahman and other U.S.-held extremists.
Nevertheless, FBI information since that time indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York.
The FBI is conducting approximately 70 investigations throughout the U.S. that it considers Bin Laden-related. CIA and the FBI are investigating a call to our embassy in the UAE in May saying that a group or Bin Laden supporters was in the U.S. planning attacks with explosives.
What did Bush do after receiving this briefing? He promptly went on vacation. It is unclear what Cheney did, but whatever it was, it had nothing to do with national security. In addition, torture was unneeded in obtaining this information. What was needed, however, was a White House interested in protecting our nation. It is therefore remarkable that Cheney continues to use 9/11 as a reason for his abuses of power, rather than be shamed by his indifference and negligence.
A.Q. Khan Network
Here is what he says about A.Q. Khan, the "father" of Pakistani nuclear weapons and a Middle East black market that sprang up around him:
This was the world in which al-Qaida was seeking nuclear technology and A.Q. Khan was selling nuclear technology on the black market. We had the anthrax attack from an unknown source. We had the training camps in Afghanistan and dictators like Saddam Hussein with known ties to Mideast terrorists.
--snip--
We did all of these things and, with bipartisan support, put all of these policies in place. It has resulted in serious blows against enemy operations: the takedown of the A.Q. Khan network and the dismantling of Libya's nuclear program.
Now let's look at the actual facts of this.
In 2007, BBC’s Newsnight and the Guardian reported the following:
The Bush administration thwarted investigations of Dr. A.Q. Khan, known as the "father" of Pakistan's atomic bomb. This week, Khan confessed to selling atomic secrets to Libya, North Korea, and Iran.
The Bush Administration has expressed shock at disclosures that Pakistan, our ally in the war on terror, has been running a nuclear secrets bazaar. In fact, according to the British news teams' sources within US intelligence agencies, shortly after President Bush's inauguration, his National Security Agency (NSA) effectively stymied the probe of Khan Research Laboratories, the Pakistani agency in charge of the bomb project. CIA and other agents told BBC they could not investigate the spread of 'Islamic Bombs' through Pakistan because funding appeared to originate in Saudi Arabia.
Moreover, in 2003 it was Cheney and his team, including his former Chief of Staff I. Scooter Libby, who outed a covert operation tracking some - at least minimally - of the A.Q. Khan network. I broke this story in 2005 and here is what I reported then:
According to current and former intelligence officials, Plame Wilson, who worked on the clandestine side of the CIA in the Directorate of Operations as a non-official cover (NOC) officer, was part of an operation tracking distribution and acquisition of weapons of mass destruction technology to and from Iran.
--snip--
While many have speculated that Plame was involved in monitoring the nuclear proliferation black market, specifically the proliferation activities of Pakistan's nuclear "father," A.Q. Khan, intelligence sources say that her team provided only minimal support in that area, focusing almost entirely on Iran.
Although I was told a good deal more than this, including her then-most recent work on Iraq, I was restricted by my sources to reporting ONLY about Iran and ONLY touching on Pakistan. The nature of the "minimal support" remains highly classified. I was also restricted from using certain words and still have not been released from that restriction.
The reason for why my sources insisted on these conditions was that although they had felt strongly that what Cheney had done was indeed treason, they also felt strongly that too much information would expose the operation further and cause additional damages to agency methods and sources.
What we do know is that a group of clandestine officers provided at least "minimal support" in monitoring the A.Q. Khan network. What we also know is that this operation was compromised because Dick Cheney's office had to silence a good, honest, few Americans from speaking out about the lies that led us into Iraq.
Yet Cheney claims success in taking down A.Q. Khan's network.
Yes, it boggles the mind. These are but two examples in a speech littered with such claims despite well documented facts. Imagine, too, the networks covered this for the world to see. What did they cover? The world saw a former Vice President giving a speech in defense of torture and lying about even the most basic, known facts of what the Bush administration has done. If he could so brazenly lie about topics such as these, what else is he lying about? What must the world think of us for giving this man a podium on national television? Worse still, there are many defending him, regardless of the truth and regardless of the illegality of torture.
Tags: A.Q. Khan, AEI Speech, August 6 PDB, Dick Cheney, Larisa Alexandrovna, Media Ethics, Propaganda, torture, Valerie Plame Wilson
...and he had a line about Obama not respecting the truth of history, or something...that just made me laugh!!
ummm...i scanned this article. Did you mention that A. Q. Kahn was released from prison last month?
He is free. Some dangerous terrier ist huh?
He is less dangerous than a dimebag dealer on a San Diego street corner.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 7, 2009; Page A01
Early yesterday, the Pakistani scientist at the center of one of history's worst nuclear scandals walked out of his Islamabad villa to declare his vindication after five years of house arrest. "The judgment, by the grace of God, is good," a smiling Abdul Qadeer Khan told a throng of reporters and TV crews.
DID CHENEY COMMIT TREASON? IF HE DID, LET LIBBY SHOOT HIM!
THANK YOU FOR YOUR COURAGE AND DELIGENCE.
TRUTH IS ALWAYS THE BEST WEAPON.
re: "Perhaps former Chilean torturer Augusto Pinochet would have received a similarly warm reception from our broadcasters if he had chosen to deliver a speech on the benefits of torture.
The ethics vacuum is mind-boggling."
Enough Said! The Media refuses to help us. We have to do it.
We voters Must Make Prosecution of Torturers Our Goal. If we work together we can get it done.
SIGN THE PETITION
calling for the Indictment of Bush and Cheney
http://ANGRYVOTERS.ORG
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Join us and call yourself a Patriot
.
Natty, if you want to post a comment you might try to learn the subject first.
here is the Cheney line that I mentioned above...
"And whatever choices he makes concerning the defense of this country, those choices should not be based on slogans and campaign rhetoric, but on a truthful telling of history. "
Thank you Larisa for your ongoing efforts!!! Real journalism is rare to find these days and you are much appreciated.
The Journalism at RawStory is
Top Drawer!!!
Keep it up!
Bush Rove Cheney Rummy:
Barack Uncle Tom or Uncle Sam?
anthrax intimidation
monsters on parade
extortion blackmail bribery
aipac's israel-first dual-nationals
federal reserve is unaccountable?
the 911 crime cover-up of the century
nader paul kucinich gravel
mckinney ventura too
perotcharts.com
RAGE
My dad, Vice President Richard Cheney is a fine father, man @ American.
We played hid the detonator while I was growing up. He is fine father and just because he played President while Georgie W. prayed is NO reason to hate him.
So he had a few of them A-rabs beaten up and tortured a little all you Liberal Constitution lovers cry like the wussies you'all are. Sure he even SLAPPED me and my dike sister around a little bit cause we didn't do all the things he wanted us to do does not mean he is a sick or mentally ill dad or VP.
Come on - we Americans all like a nice war with them towel-heads cause they are not real people - they worship Ali - not our Jesus the Lord and Savior.
VP - my dad even told me the terrorists did not even bleed red like our fellow Christians. We can torture them cause they are not God fearing Christians like many of our friends.
Liz Cheney
"What was needed, however, was a White House interested in protecting our nation."
The unavoidable indictment of Cheney as to his negligence in failing to act to stop 9/11 is rock-solid, even if the mountains of evidence of his complicity in 9/11 is left out of the argument, as it usually is, to spare the feeble brain cells of the average house-pet voter.
Like a surgeon that does minimal surgery on a very sick patient might say, "the patient is not strong enough for this operation at this time. We must wait until vital signs improve before daring to attack the core problem."
If they ever do, that is.
The lie Cheney told about A.Q. Khan...
The reason for why my sources insisted on these conditions was that although they had felt strongly that what Cheney had done was indeed treason, they also felt strongly that too much information would expose the operation further and cause additional ...
I just found this interesting...
The August PDB said that al Qaeda was "planning attacks with explosives." The Twin Towers and Building 7 came down at free fall speed, which defies physics. US Govt admits jet fuel / building fire can't melt steel, yet molten steel found in all 3 basements. Traces of thermite explosives found in WTC steel. Eyewitness reports of secondary explosions outside of the plane impacts, collapses.
Thwarting investigations of AQ Khan? What other motivation does he have, outside of pleasing the Pakistani intelligence agency (ISI) -- which supports al Qaeda, the Taliban, and helped created these groups and Osama bin Laden during the 1979-1989 Afghan War along with US support.
Maybe the CIA and ISI never stopped working together? It is well known that the ISI still uses militants as patsies, and they use them for proxy control over the region of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
We need a true independent investigation that chases down all the leads, wherever they may go. I doubt we will ever have any for 9/11, torture, Bush lies over Iraq and more, abuse of power, other war crimes, etc.
Even rereading this article I'm still complexed on how Cheney lied in his speech. Are you trying to say that the A.Q. Kahn network's wasn't completely disrupted? Or are you trying to say that Cheney shouldn't claim that the administration helped take down the network.
If you are saying that the network wasn't completely disrupted, then I don't see any examples in your piece of how the network was not completely disrupted. If you are saying that Cheney shouldn't claim the administration took down the network then you would be correct, however Cheney does not make the claim of success in taking down the network.
Cheney says the putting in place of the bipartisan policies resulted in the take down of the A.Q. Kahn network. He does not say we took down the A.Q. Kahn network. If you would have not omitted the paragraph before the -snip your readers could have a better idea of what Cheney was referring to when he said "We did all of these things...". It would also be easier to understand that Cheney was referring to the administration's comprehensive strategy when he says we did all these things. The US turning special attention to "regimes that had the capacity to build weapons of mass destruction ,..." is what helped result in the take down of the A.Q. Kahn network.
Kahn was a hero in Pakistan. It was the US attention to Kahn that helped bring down the network. Cheney did not lie in the speech. You just didn't read it well enough and jumped to conclusions. I recommend everyone who reads this article actually read Cheney's speech before the AEI titled "The United States Has Never Lost Its Moral Bearings" I believe that your writing may benefit from an objectively orientated experienced editor. Good luck in the future.
Cheney must be completely unaware of the web and that fact that we can fact-check his ass.
The AQ Khan network wasn't completely disrupted because many of the Americans, including and especially American politicians, who assisted it have never been publicly identified, much less prosecuted. I believe the Clinton administration bears responsibility for this also. Sibel Edmonds, who Obama still has under a gag order, could shed a lot of light on how much Bushco really did to stop Khan.
Also, Cheney sabotaged the disruption of the AQ Khan network. The investigation wasn't bipartisan: Cheney actively helped undermine it. Now he's claiming that Bushco helped take down the AQ Khan network. Hypocrisy doesn't get much richer.
Also, "complexed" isn't a word. Other than that, carry on, wingnut cotb.
Dick Cheney is running for President in 2012... this is just the opening round of a long campaign. Cheney will be 71 in 2012 - Republican hero Ronald Reagan was 70 when he assumed office. Cheney is hoping folks will forget about his health 'issues' when they vote.
How do I know? Consider what Cheney said in his AEI speech on May 21, 2009: " I had the advantage of being a vice president content with my responsibilities I had and going about my work with no higher ambition. Today, I'm an even freer man. Your kind invitation brings me here as a private citizen, a career in politics behind me, no elections to win or lose, and no favor to seek."
Dick Deferment is a psychopathic liar - so when he says something one can only assume the opposite. The not so GOP is so rudderless right now, they will embrace charlatan Cheney.
I'm not a religious man, Larissa, but God bless you! Would that we had ten more of you tilting at the windmills of our horrors.
I share you with everyone I know. [ Is that impolite of me?
]
Very well-written commentary -- and I couldn't agree more.
Thank you for making it clear that torture isn't one side of an ideological argument, and for chastising the media for pretending otherwise. It is truly exasperating to see Cheney defending criminal conduct (including his own) through the use of a political soapbox.
If only this country had a non-partisan, apolitical method of punishing crimes by government officials. Under the two-party system, any illegal act can be defended by accusing those who identify it and want to see it punished of partisanship or ideological motive. There's no right vs. wrong any more...only left vs. right, with people like Obama in the middle, afraid of ticking off either side. Pathetic, really.
Hi Larisa
Thank you for publishing this. By July 2003 most of the world knew that there were no nuclear, or any other, weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
I think this also meant that those with knowledge knew that there was only one serious proliferator of nuclear technology out there.
George Crile's book "Charlie Wilson's War" provides some very interesting material on this for example,on pages 420-421 on fights in the House Appropriations Committee on funding for Pakistan in the Spring of 1986.
On page 463 he writes "The dirty little secret of the Afghan war was that Zia had extracted a concession early on from Reagan: Pakistan would work with the CIA against the Soviets in Afghanistan, and in return the US would not only provide massive aid but would agree to look the other way on the question of the bomb."
He goes on to report on an incident in 1985 which pitted different factions of Democrats on the appropriations committee against each other.
In the longer view, I think, one of the issues about US scandals is that current revelations often are only partially truthful and conceal policy adjustments.
It is interesting to compare the relation between Iran-Contra and Afghanistan as related by Crile, with the 9/11 commission and the transition from war in Afghanistan to war in Iraq.
Of course, if AQ Khan functioned as Crile suggests, then the US knew precisely whose nuclear program was capable of what, most of the time. And thus also always did know what the story was about Iraq, as Albright, Ikeus and Ritter each made clear in their own way.
No doubt Plame was sacrificed for the same reason Britain's Kelly was to protect against the exposure of even more damaging things than the missing weapons, which were never there anyway.
[...] http://rawstory.com/blog/2009/05/cheney-lies-in-defense-of-torture/ “The lie Cheney told about A.Q. Khan” by Larisa Alexandrovna [...]
"Kahn was a hero in Pakistan"
Kahn is a Jewish name (variant of Cohen) or German (meaning "a barge").
A. Q.'s name is Khan, a Turkic name made universal by Genghis Khan, meaning "ruler", now a frequent honorific appended to Muslim names in the subcontinent.
Chris —
RE Crile's book, I've heard of the movie and that it is not to be taken at face value. Apparently the book intended as actual history (first I've heard the book mentioned). Very interesting. If only I were retired, I'd read all those hundred books on my list.
Plame's name being mentioned calls for Sibel Edmonds to be included as well, not to mention Marc Grossman. David kelly was surely murdered as you say.
Let me guess — was one of the Democrats on the pro-Zia side Scoop Jackson, mother-hen of NeoConservatism?
P.S., "Ekeus"
[...] via The Raw Story » The lie Cheney told about A.Q. Khan. [...]
Now if only the Mainstream "News" Media would read this article and SLAM Cheney on the FACTS!!!
I'm getting tired of all the "Free Passes" they keep giving him and their wimpy questions, if they ask a question at all.
After all, they treat everything he says as "Gospel".
Sorry MSM, but it's a PACK OF LIES that Cheney keeps spewing out of that mouth of his!!! Wake-Up!!
We voters Must Make Prosecution of Torturers Our Goal. If we work together we can get it done.
SIGN THE PETITION
calling for the Indictment of Bush and Cheney
http://ANGRYVOTERS.ORG
over 250,000 have signed
Join us and call yourself a Patriot
.
The "Gulf Wars" have been all about the money. OIL. Power. Bush types who won't even properly protect our southern Mex border or address other ignored & campaigned issues within the USA. This reminds me of Kennedy's assasination over his disinterest in pushing forward into Viet Nam. Another war front to support the offensive war machine. National Security is BS. Overused term. Just like the "war on terror". We must use more diplomacy, patience, and unify with a majority vote with our peaceful allies. We aren't the cavaliers to go off and police the world on our own. DEFENSE of our OWN borders. Why hasn't Bin Laden been taken? Because there is BS and coverups. We are stupid Americans unwilling to hold our govt accountable for unverified Intel or coverups. Bush should be in prison...and his side kick Cheney as well. We need a min 3party system. The dems and repubs cannot solve our probs of a broken hard drive system. WE NEED TO WAKE UP. GOD BLESS THE LOYALTY of OUR TROOPS. But the big boys and old boy system in WASHINGTON needs to be cleaned up. Pray for Obama to turn our compass gradually to a better course than what we have been on. And I LIKE TRANSPARENCY and burying old hatchets like Cuba. Give "blackballed" different cutlures a new chance to stand up for what's right. And Liz Cheney: You girl are prejudiced and think Christians are the only way. YOU ARE WRONG and so is daddy. The world needs education and the teaching of developing resources to fight poverty. Everybody...EVERYONE deserves a chance to redeem themselves. STOP ALREADY WITH THE ISSUES OF MONEY DRIVING morality. Service, family, and integrity. Anything outside of that is suspect. Travel the world and look within most cultures to find the GOOD.....extremists exists everywhere. We should only be an honorable beacon/example ... not power hungry thinking we are better than others.
The bigger lie is about who was behind 9/11 -- see http://www.twf.org/911.html. On July 11, we're holding a briefing on what happened at the Pentagon -- program details at http://www.twf.org/News/Y2009/0611-Pentagon.pdf
There is no more explicit proof of the protection given by Bush/Chain-ee to the A.Q. Khan network than that of the outrageous silencing of Sybil Edmonds, the former FBI contract interpreter in the months just after 9/11. She has both revealed and implied (due to former AG Ashcroft's "gag order" on her) that there was involvement at the highest levels of official Washington in protecting a nuclear black-market involving parties from the USA, Israel and Turkey. Specifically: former Republican Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, former top State Dept official under Bush II, Marc Grossman, former top DOD officials (and unofficial Israeli lobbyists) Richard Perle and Doug Feith, plus multiple U.S. Congressmen Tom Lantos, Stephen Solarz, Dan Burton et al (many of whom hold key Committee chairmanships