Darth Cheney

One of these days, Dick Cheney is going to slip and invoke Jack Bauer’s name in the middle of one of his diatribes against his critics for certainly it is with the fictitious CTU officer whom Mr. Cheney best relates. One can only imagine the Vice President pining for a world like the one in which Bauer operates, unfettered by limitations imposed by moral code or law in which the government’s efforts to secure information from the enemy are limited only by the ingenuity of the interrogator. In lobbying to remove any limitations imposed by the McCain-sponsored anti-torture legislation upon the CIA’s ability to secure information from “enemy combatants”, Mr. Cheney certainly has in mind “24’s” second season, among others, in which Bauer coerced a confession from a Middle Eastern terrorist by showing him a live video feed of his children being shot one by one until the terrorist “gave up” the information Bauer sought (the terrorist is not told that the killings had been staged and that his children were actually alive) and later murdered a suspected terrorist during interrogation (he simply pulled his weapon and executed the shackled suspect) in order to re-establish his undercover status and make contact with the target of the investigation. Mr. Cheney’s lobbying efforts and rhetoric make clear his conviction that the CIA requires the same freedom afforded Mr. Bauer in order to carry out its mandate. Most assuredly, Mr. Cheney shares Jack’s firm belief that the ends justify and excuse the means.

It may very well be that Dick Cheney is crazy. Yet, given that it is Cheney and not Bush who is generally believed to be the de facto leader of the free world, the thought that the behavior that we have witnessed over the past five plus years is driven by insanity rather than a perverse sense of right and entitlement is so frightening that one almost embraces the idea that the Vice President has simply perfected the art of demagoguery and political vitriol rather than being driven by inner demons. Nevertheless, his recent efforts in support of torture and characterization of claims by Senate Democrats that he and the President misled the country about pre-war intelligence as “one of the most dishonest and reprehensible charges ever aired in this city” does raise concern about the man’s health and, consequently, that of the country.

In discerning the state of Mr. Cheney’s mental health and his often acerbic oratory, let us consider, for the moment, his latest charges about the honesty of those who press for an explanation from the administration about its use of intelligence to support its invasion of Iraq in March 2003. It is indeed with some gratification that Mr. Cheney’s accusations are comparative in nature, leaving room for acts of dishonesty that exceed those of his critics. While one might be tempted to accord the likes of Tom DeLay, Jack Abramoff or his own “Scooter” Libby as title holder of “dishonest” and “reprehensible”, it may very well be none other than the Vice President himself who wears that crown proudly.

Even before considering his conduct during his Vice Presidency, it is important to know who it is we are dealing with.

For example, beyond the damage wrought by Halliburton during his tenure at the company’s helm, Cheney negotiated the disastrous (for Halliburton) acquisition of Dresser Industries in 1998 (disastrous because in doing so Halliburton also acquired more than $700 million of Dresser’s asbestos-related liability), and then used two Dresser subsidiaries, Dresser-Rand and Ingersoll Dresser Pump Co., to sell water and sewage treatment pumps, spare parts for oil facilities and pipeline equipment to Baghdad through a foreign intermediary in violation of UN sanctions. Not surprisingly, in a July 30, 2000 interview on ABC’s “This Week”, Cheney steadfastly denied that Halliburton or its subsidiaries did any business with Baghdad.

As for his behavior since the 2000 elections?

• Continuing to use intelligence received from a captured Al Qaeda operative, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, concerning Iraq training Al Qaeda agents in the use of biological and chemical weapons in 2003 and 2004 to suggest to the American people that there was a connection between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda despite being told in February 2002 that the intelligence was wrong;


• Perpetuating mis/dis-information that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction when it was clear that none existed;


• Continuing to suggest that there existed a connection between the attacks of September 11th and Hussein, repeatedly referring to a meeting between one of the hijackers, Mohammed Atta and Iraqi agents in Prague weeks before the attacks without any basis in fact for doing so;


• Conducting secret meetings with executives from several of the largest oil producing companies in the world during which the Vice President promulgated administration policy concerning drilling, exploration and pricing. Significantly, not only has Cheney steadfastly refused to share any information about the meeting, but just this past week we witnessed the spectacle of the very oil executives who either attended the meeting or were represented at the meeting denying that they attended the meeting during Congressional hearings;


• Pushing for legislative exemptions to permit the CIA and Army intelligence to torture enemy combatants and captured insurgents; and,


• The Pentagon, acting under instructions from Vice President Dick Cheney’s office, has tasked the United States Strategic Command (STRATCOM) with drawing up a contingency plan to be employed in response to another 9/11-type terrorist attack on the United States. The plan includes a large-scale air assault on Iran employing both conventional and tactical nuclear weapons. Within Iran there are more than 450 major strategic targets, including numerous suspected nuclear-weapons-program development sites. Many of the targets are hardened or are deep underground and could not be taken out by conventional weapons, hence the nuclear option. As in the case of Iraq, the response is not conditional on Iran actually being involved in the act of terrorism directed against the United States. Several senior Air Force officers involved in the planning are reportedly appalled at the implications of what they are doing—that Iran is being set up for an unprovoked nuclear attack—but no one is prepared to damage his career by posing any objections. (First reported in Philip Geraldi in the Aug 1, 2005, issue of The American Conservative)

If the Vice President is not responding to his inner demons, then why have we been subjected to this type of abuse of power? In the words of Joshua Marshall in his Washington Monthly piece, “Vice Grip: Dick Cheney is a Man of Principles. Disastrous Principles” (Jan/Feb 2003):

“Cheney is conservative, of course, but beneath his conservatism is something more important: a mindset rooted in his peculiar corporate-Washington-insider class. It is a world of men--very few women--who have been at the apex of both business and government, and who feel that they are unique in their mastery of both. Consequently, they have an extreme assurance in their own judgment about what is best for the country and how to achieve it. They see themselves as men of action. But their style of action is shaped by the government bureaucracies and cartel-like industries in which they have operated. In these institutions, a handful of top officials make the plans, and then the plans are carried out….In such a framework all information is controlled tightly by the principals, who have "maximum flexibility" to carry out the plan. Because success is measured by securing the deal rather than by, say, pleasing millions of customers, there's no need to open up the decision-making process. To do so, in fact, is seen as governing by committee. If there are other groups (shareholders, voters, congressional committees) who agree with you, fine, you use them. But anyone who doesn't agree gets ignored or, if need be, crushed. Muscle it through and when the results are in, people will realize we were right is the underlying attitude”.

Righteousness and entitlement...entitlement and righteousness.

The question Marshall ultimately poses, “Why, though, has the press failed to grasp Cheney's ineptitude” is at the core of why we find ourselves in this mess. Revelations this week that Bob Woodward was apparently the first (at least this week) member of the fourth estate to obtain information from a highly placed source (and did so before “Scooter Libby” apparently shared the information with Judy Miller, Bob Novak or Matt Cooper) simply reinforces the now-realized understanding that the press has existed to serve rather than report upon this government; that driven by corporations more interested in the money that so-called, “inside information” will generate rather than in the veracity of the information and the motives of those sharing the information, the press – the print media in particular – has come to be viewed by this administration as its voice and ally rather than its watchdog. Consequently, rather than raising concern about Cheney’s words and actions, people like Woodward and Miller willingly pass along the VP’s comments without comment of their own simply to maintain access at the risk of their own journalistic integrity. That no one in the media, for many months, said nary an unkind word about Mr. Cheney has damaged this nation, and by extension, the world as much as Mr. Cheney’s words and conduct.