Cheney: Obama Has Raised The Risk Of Attack On America
Dick Cheney, in his first television interview since leaving office, didn't shy away from throwing a few haymakers at his White House successors, saying at one point that Barack Obama's policies had raised the risk of a domestic terrorist attack.
"I do," said the former vice president, when asked if President Obama's policies had made the U.S. less safe. "I think those programs were absolutely essential to the success we enjoyed of being able to collect the intelligence that let us defeat all further attempts to launch attacks against the United States since 9/11. I think that's a great success story. It was done legally. It was done in accordance with our constitutional practices and principles. President Obama campaigned against it all across the country. And now he is making some choices that, in my mind, will, in fact, raise the risk to the American people of another attack."
Speaking to CNN's John King, Cheney was referencing the Obama administration's decision to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, to strictly outlaw torture and define water boarding as such, and to suspend trials for terrorists by military commission. His comments furthered a line of attack he had made against the president in his first post-office interview with Politico.
Cheney's foreign policy critiques didn't end there. He also whacked the president for appointing Christopher Hill as the country's top diplomat in Iraq.
"He is not the man I would have picked for that post," said Cheney of Hill. "He has none of the skills and talents that Ryan Crocker has."
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First Posted: 03-15-09 10:03 AM | Updated: 04-15-09 05:12 AM