Leon Panetta: Cheney Almost "Wishing That This Country Would Be Attacked Again"

WASHINGTON — CIA Director Leon Panetta says former Vice President Dick Cheney's criticism of the Obama administration's approach to terrorism almost suggests "he's wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point."

Panetta told The New Yorker for an article in its June 22 issue that Cheney "smells some blood in the water" on the issue of national security.

Cheney has said in several interviews that he thinks Obama is making the U.S. less safe. He has been critical of Obama for ordering the closure of the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, halting enhanced interrogations of suspected terrorists and reversing other Bush administration initiatives he says helped to prevent attacks on the U.S.

Last month the former vice president offered a withering critique of Obama's policies and a defense of the Bush administration on the same day that Obama made a major speech about national security.

Panetta said of Cheney's remarks: "It's almost, a little bit, gallows politics. When you read behind it, it's almost as if he's wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point. I think that's dangerous politics."

Asked if he agreed with Panetta, Vice President Joe Biden told NBC's "Meet the Press" that he wouldn't question the motive behind Cheney's criticism.

"I think Dick Cheney's judgment about how to secure America is faulty," Biden said. "I think our judgment is correct."

Comments

[jimbeaux1961]

What's so hard to believe about that? Cheney knew when he pushed for the Iraq Invasion that his rationale for it was't true, and he knew that troops would die. Standard business for a war-profiteer.

[mamacat]

Thank you, Mr. Cheney, for not letting me forget why I voted for Obama and Biden.

I had the chance to talk with many Europeans recently, and almost all of them brought up the subject of the Bush years. They kept asking me, how could you (the U.S.) have elected such an awful President? That is a very good question. Generations to come will be asking, how could we have been so blind?

There is an old saying, None is so blind as he who will not see. What else can I say?

[lazercat2008]

If we do not move against Saddam Hussein and his regime, the damage our Israeli friends and we have suffered until now may someday appear but a prelude to much greater horrors. Moreover, we believe that the surest path to peace in the Middle East lies not through the appeasement of Saddam and other local tyrants, but through a renewed commitment on our part, as you suggested in your State of the Union address, to the birth of freedom and democratic government in the Islamic world. --PNAC

Duh, I thought we were fighting to free Iraq from Saddam Insane. I guess according to Dick Cheney and friends we were protecting the Israelis from terror.

[ScreenName05]

I think the word "almost" is surplusage (legal term for words added that don't contribute to the meaning of a communication). Clearly Dick is asking the terrorist to come in and bomb us as soon as it can be arranged, so that Obama will look bad. However, this could backfire on Dick, as the American people could rally around President Obama the way they did around President Bush. And in Obama's case he is not dumb enough to just sit there reading about a goat or attack Iraq. Obama would likely use such an event to rally the world to decimate whatever organization perpetrated the event. May be we can get the Republicans to bomb America.

[lazercat2008]

The American people are too busy watching reality TV.

[MadDemocrat]

Thank God for George Bush and the Bush administration. At least I got to live for 8 more safe years before we hired this joke of a president. While I don't wish an attack on BHO's watch. it won't surprise me when it happens.

[ScreenName05]

Yes, you also got to find out what really incompetent people can do with unlimited power and how to steal several trillion dollars with everyone looking.

[MadDemocrat]

You guys would know how to steal trillions of dollars from the American public, that's for sure!

[lthuedk 1]

Cheney used our worst terrorist attack to green light the PNAC - a totalitarian manifesto crafted in advance for that handy event.

http://www.light-to-dark.com/energy_merchants.html

Totalitarians do not compromise. Cheney's protections racket-styled junta required violence to terraform society around it's ideology. Of course Hitler II wants more carnage: It's what global fascism is all about.

I realize the remaining "Conservative" 20% have stuck with maximum ignorance backed by mob mentality as their shield of cowardice and modus operandi, but not owning up to their tragic mistake of bowing to dictatorship will leave a permanent mark every bit as indelible as the one the Nazis left on Germany.

http://www.light-to-dark.com/triptych.html

Cheney is depending on these people to save his treasonous neck, along with the necks of key players in the 9-11 Commission Crimes. Bottom line: Our country was overthrown by traitors whose only hope today is in maintaining Neo Con control of his extra-governmental junta and the reliable 20%.

http://www.light-to-dark.com/flying_moles_over_dc.html

It is the raging, Limbaugh/O­'Reilly/Co­ulter/Hann­ity/Beck/M­alkin-oid authoritarian polarizers who play these weak-minded sheep that stand ready to scream, We Told You, at the next attack. Sharing Cheney's brain stem can, however, be risky in light of what new evidence of tyranny is sure to come out. .

[VAcitizen]

This thought has crossed me ever since Obama won - the fact that Cheney & gang wish this country is attacked. I would be surprised if they actually orchestrated it. Remember at one point in history Saddam was 'aided' by S before he became Enemy #1 and same story with Bin Laden!?

[EconPadawan]

Cheney has blamed nineeleven on the previous admininistration because he says they
failed to get bin-laden". By his own reasoning then, if we were attacked again it would be HIS fault because he also failed to get bin laden. That is not twisted logic, that is not bias, that is Cheney's own reasoning.

[AbeMartin]

Mr. Cheney has spent a significant part of his life, beginning with college, avoiding any possibility of danger to himself: Six student deferments while 50,000+ American servicemen were killed and hundreds of thousands disabled in Vietnam; Cowering on the third or fourth subterranean level of the White House during 9/11. Stalking to and from speaking gigs at Conservative Stink tanks, flanked by more security and hired thugs than the Kim of North Korea. And now, if his previous pattern is continuing, shuttling from spider hole to safe house, to his "Fortress of Solitude" a former Minuteman Missile Silo in Wyoming. This coward is a leader? Pul-eeeze!

[LarBear]

Cheney is one of the authors of P.N.A.C.... He and others were making plans to Invade/Occupy other Nations before G W Bush became President... P.N.A.C. was/is a plan for the USA to with Military, Economic and Cyberspace, take over and Control the World... 9 -11 was the event needed to implement P.N.A.C.... Bush-Cheney were supposedly standing Watch over the USA when we were attacked on 9 -11... WE had been warned of the intent of planes being flown like bombs into buildings...

Did you fail to Protect the USA, Bush/Cheney, or did you gleefully rub your hands and carry out P.N.A.C????? And after your P.N.A.C FAILED Invasion/O­ccupation(­s) and your creating more Terrorist then existed prior to you taking office, you now want to fault President Obama????????????

JUST GO AWAY!!!

[KillBillV2]

It's true.

[Prakosh]

When you look at how much Cheeney was able to accomplish after the first terrorist attack it is no wonder that he is hoping for another. Clearly, he sees the Republicans fortunes rising and falling with the threat and fear of terror. They manipulated the threat level throughout the Bush administration and they are still trying to do the same thing today. I am convinced and have been for several years now that the administration had plenty of warning and knew that bin Laden would strike but were sitting on their hands because they knew that when he struck they could use it. And use it they did. We now are involved in two wars and the economy has been ruined by debt and financial irresponsibility directly connected to the ill conceived tax cuts and the special funding requests that hid the cost of the two wars to prevent protests against them. Truly dispicable behavior all around--don't look back or you will turn into pillars of salt.

[Marlyn]

"I am convinced and have been for several years now that the administration had plenty of warning and knew that bin Laden would strike but were sitting on their hands because they knew that when he struck they could use it."

Me too. It seems clear, especially when Richard Clarke quit and published his book "Against All Enemies", and Condi Rice said "He wasn't in the loop. He is just trying to sell his book."

Clarke was ignored by Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice, while they planned their invasion of Iraq.

[EconPadawan]

The 43rd presidential administration really was a one trick pony when it came to policy. They used fear to push their agenda on the unsuspecting public.

[BumpyKnight]

Great Mr. Panetta, but what is this "almost" stuff?
This is not the first time the PNAC gang needed a "new Pearl Harbor" for political ends.

[lazercat2008]

Hello, the Middle East watches our broadcasts. Isn't this emboldening the Ter. ro.rists?

"John Kerry is trying to tear down all the good that has been accomplished, and his words are destructive to our effort in Iraq and in the global war on terror," vice president Dick Cheney told a GOP rally in St. Joseph, Missouri. "As Prime Minister Allawi said in his speech, and I quote, 'When political leaders sound the siren of defeatism in the face of terrorism, it only encourages more violence.' End quote."

[Suzanne525]

I have no doubt that Cheney was happy about 9-11, because it gave them the excuse to start wars. He profited handsomely.

Another attack would help to silence critics of their torture policies, and likely prevent any real prosecution.

I'd bet he is doing more than hoping.