John Brennan: Cheney 'Ignorant' Or Distorting Terror Facts (VIDEO)

Another Obama administration official is pushing back against Dick Cheney's attacks on the White House over the attempted Christmas Day terrorist attack.

On Fox News Sunday, senior counterterrorism adviser John Brennan -- who also served under President Bush -- responded to Cheneys comment that Obama thinks the war on terror is over.

"It's disappointing to me that either the vice president or others have willfully mischaracterized President Obama's position and actions or they're just ignorant of the facts," he said. "I think in either case, it doesn't speak well to sort of the reasons why they sort of went out and said these things."

"I'm neither Republican nor Democrat," he added. "I've worked for five previous administrations, and this president ... says we're at war with Al Qaeda. We're going to destroy Al Qaeda."

Watch, via ThinkProgress:

On NBC's "Meet The Press," Bush CIA director Michael Hayden agreed, saying, ": I -- I am heartened by the fact that the President consistently says, "We are at war with Al Qaeda and its affiliates ... We should not overly politicize things that are essentially security in nature."

In a blog post the previous week, White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer said Cheney's "bellicose rhetoric" didn't interest him and called the former VP's national security critique "strangely off-key."

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Comments

[nyoped]

09:26 PM on 01/22/2010

Cheney thought you could keep the country safe by talking. No wonder they could not have stopped 9/11 attacks.

[dotbed1]

03:00 PM on 01/05/2010

Can the past WH occupants be charged with "TREASON" ?????????????????????????

[dotbed1]

02:53 PM on 01/05/2010

The past occupants of the WH are not the least bit ashamed of the mess they got us into . Now they are acting delisional and putting it all on President Obama as if he was in office for the past 8yrs . The american are not stupid and we know full well when and who did what.

[dotbed1]

02:43 PM on 01/05/2010

How can Brit Hume give Tiger Woods lessons on being forgiven for his sins if he converts from judisium to christianity. What was Brit Hume's son when he commited suicide, a christian???????Political pundiunts should stick to telling the news as they get it and not mix politics with religion.Hume was totally out of place ansd should make an open apology to Tiger Woods . Hume should be worried about the things he needs to confess to .Religion is personal and Hume needs to be quiet or go away.again.

[dotbed1]

02:36 PM on 01/05/2010

Is it TREASON for an x Vice President to trash out a sitting president ?????????????

[gintheb]

11:25 AM on 01/05/2010

I'll go with ignorant.

[BadgersBite]

07:20 AM on 01/05/2010

Not to point out the obvious but didn't 911 happen on his watch?

[outragedkar]

06:10 AM on 01/05/2010

He.ll exists for people like and including cheney to eventually reside in for eternity.

[ilse]

05:02 AM on 01/05/2010

It's unfair for the american people not to know the truth about 911 and iraq. Cheney, Bush and Rumsfeld need to pay for their lies and deceit. They've committed crimes and need to spend time behind bars. Wasn't it Cheney who before 911 said they needed another Pearl Harbor event?????????? These are the real terroristsss and if anyone thinks that they would never killll their own people, think again. Lyndon Johnson did a false flag operation and made a back door deal with israel to attack the USS Liberty and sink it and then blame Egypt. Search the internet for false flag operations. There is a long history of false flag operations.

[satanlite]

09:54 PM on 01/04/2010

Batman comic books told the Republicans how to make the country safe from terrorists. If only the terrorists would cooperate.

[ebanks84]

09:08 PM on 01/04/2010

Rachel is on now blasting the GOP with their own words.

[dotbed1]

02:59 PM on 01/05/2010

Rachael Maddow , Keith Olberman and Ed Schultz are right on it . Maybe now that they are fact checking the lies that are out there , the ones spreading them will maybe stop {don't count on it }. These people have no shame . The past occupants of the WH can not change what happened under theyir watch and what they did or did not do is , what it is . Writting a book and telling lies will not erase this fact .Words and actions do not ,LIE...............

[ebanks84]

08:38 PM on 01/04/2010

An NBC terrorist analyst just said on Keith Olbermann that somebody made a terrible mistake by not presenting the information about the airplane bomber to the property agencies who were supposed to be notified of such a thing and that those involved should be brought to task for their errors. Keith also said that Cheney is nothing but a traitor to this country with his actions against the president by emboldening the enemy with our inside party strife.

Keith also asked whether somebody might have purposely withheld the information so that the present administration could be blamed for the terrorist act. That, it seems to me, has been the main reason why Cheney has been so negatively against this administration in the first place. He wants desperately, it seems, to have a major incident happen on Obama's watch that maybe he is behind some of these terroristic incidents like I mentioned earlier about the Guantanamo detainees who were released by him two years ago.

I believe the more we investigate, the more we will find that Cheney's dirty fingers are mired in secrets and underhanded schemes against his own country. I believe this man is a total fre.ak of nature and a bonafide cr.eep determined to destroy the people of this country. I can't wait for this man to receive just a taste of his pending karma.

[tierone]

01:53 PM on 01/04/2010

Why does it have to be an either/or proposition?

I vote for both.

[pantherburns]

06:22 PM on 01/04/2010

Hear! Hear!

[jsgaetano]

01:26 PM on 01/04/2010

Distorting facts. A polite way of saying Cheney is clearly lying, and doing it intentionally.

[ebanks84]

08:40 PM on 01/04/2010

Absolutely!

[BabblingBrooks]

12:17 PM on 01/04/2010

And why would we trust Brennan's statements more than Cheney's?

[justoverit333]

12:21 PM on 01/04/2010

Why should we trust Brennan's statements? He's worked
for several administrations. He's calling it like he sees it.
Cheney is lying. So what's new? He's a clown.

[dotbed1]

02:51 PM on 01/05/2010

Thank God Republicans are rising to the ocassion and denying what CHEENEY is saying , it is about time the Media rises to the ocassion and do the same . Why are they do afraid of CHEENEY???????????????

[SFBunkSurf]

01:10 PM on 01/04/2010

Because they're true. It's clear that Cheney is wrong. Obama knows full well what he's dealing with regarding the two wars Cheney started but never wanted to finish. Cheney and the Neocons want endless war, that we know from their direct actions.