Lawrence Wilkerson: Dick Cheney 'Fears Being Tried' For War Crimes (VIDEO)

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, who served as chief of staff to Colin Powell during his tenure as secretary of state, tells ABC News that former vice president Dick Cheney "fears being tried as a war criminal."

The suggestion from Wilkerson coincides with the release of Cheney's new book, In My Time, which came out on Tuesday.

Wilkerson signaled to Democracy Now! that he believes Bush administration officials should be held accountable when it comes to matters such as the authorization of warrantless wiretapping and the use of harsh interrogation techniques for terror suspects.

"And I’d be willing to testify, and I’d be willing to take any punishment I’m due," he said. "And I think that explains the aggressiveness, to a large extent, of the Cheney attack and of the words like 'exploding heads all over Washington.' This is a book written out of fear, fear that one day someone will 'Pinochet' Dick Cheney.'

(Augusto Pinochet, former Chilean dictator, was arrested for war crimes.)

Last week, Cheney predicted "there [were] gonna be heads exploding all over Washington" upon the release of his book.

"That's quite a visual," Powell said last weekend of the former vice president's choice of words. "[It's] the kind of headline I would expect to come out of a gossip columnist or the kind of headline you might see one of the super market tabloids write. It's not the kind of headline I would have expected to come from one of the vice presidents of the United States of America."

During an appearance on CBS "Face the Nation" Powell said, "I think Dick overshot the runway."

Cheney writes that he thinks Powell tried to undermine Bush by criticizing administration policy to people outside the government.
...
While Cheney writes that Powell's resignation was "for the best," Powell signaled he had always planned to leave the administration after the 2004 election. He suggested Cheney is almost condescending in his remarks about Powell's successor, Condoleezza Rice.

Wilkerson told ABC News, "From what I've read, Cheney seems to criticize everyone, including President Bush, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, [Deputy Secretary of State] Rich Armitage, and a host of others except himself." He added, "Waterboarding is a war crime, unwarranted surveillance... all of which are crimes. I don't care whether the president authorized him to do it or not, they are crimes."

Below, video of what Wilkerson had to say to Democracy Now!.

WATCH:

Comments

[LJohns1216]

09:44 AM on 09/24/2011

I believe Dick Cheney is the WORST AMERICAN who ever lived....period.

[Tanya OaksBrooks]

08:56 PM on 09/03/2011

I guess Cheney doesn't address his lies, like the legality of unauthorized wiretapping, the definition of torture and the intelligence obtained through torture. Cheney shouldn't have to leave the country to be prosecuted. He has committed enough crimes to be convicted right here in the US.

[jwcmass]

04:24 AM on 09/23/2011

p2

Unfortunately, the CIA has been working on this for some time. Have you seen any of the footage of detainees in Gitmo being moved from place to place in an orange suit -- right down to masked hoods and gloves on their arms. This was NOT a security action, Those detainees were being subjected to psychological torture -- in this case sensory deprivation (which, if done over pro-longed periods) can have a strong and damaging effect on the mind and brain.

Now I am not making excuses for those personnel who were "following orders" -- soldiers know they have a legal obligation to NOT carry out an illegal order.

But they are not the principals who are far more guilty -- namely the people right up at the top of the Bush Administration and those in the bureaucracy and military officers along the chain of command who deserve most of the blame. Yet no officer has been tried and held accountable for this (and it was a far more extensive program than most Americans realized. We are not talking about a handful of cases of use of the drowning torture (aka waterboarding). It was FAR more extensive than that.

So knowing that Cheney, Bush et al, are NOT going to be prosecuted in these cases, people are hoping that if they perps left the US for travel, they could well be arrested and charged before the ICJ.

It doesn't look as if Cheney, Bush -- and all the usual suspects will be planning any foreign travel in the near future.

Fanned and Faved, by the way. You have helped to restore some of my faith in human decency.

[fin3244]

03:32 PM on 09/02/2011

Dick Cheney rocks! When I graduated with my Ph.D., he was our commencement speaker. Without doubt, he was the best, most intelligent speaker I've heard at any graduation ceremony -- even when I graduated Emory and the Dalai Lama spoke. This man is the true definition of a man, in the traditional sense, and some people find that intimidating. Were some of his direct statements not so offensive to the common simpletons comprising so much of our nation, he'd be my pick for President (him or Newt Gingrich -- a fellow Emory alum). He's bold and tells it like it is. He fears little to nothing, and the idea he fears being tried as a war criminal would be hysterically funny were it not so ridiculous. When I walked across the stage for my hooding during the ceremony, I flashed him the "4-more-years" sign, to which he smiled amusedly. Rock on Dick!

[SirReal1]

07:41 PM on 09/02/2011

Apparently you know very little of Mr. Cheney's long and storied past. Perhaps, rather than basing your opinion on one "well delivered speech" you might actually look into who he is, and what he's done.

A "man" in the true definition, generally isn't the guy who had the largest debt, in terms of bounced checks, in the House Banking Scandal (while imposing the punishment of disbarment on the Soldiers under you [as SecDef] for one bad check), that's just a person who lacks any moral compass.

If you were to check the number of Countries that had sworn out warrants on Mr. Cheney, prior to 2000, and checked to see how many times he visited them since they had (0), you would see that he "fears" plenty. This information may be hard to find today, but in the late 90's, there were so many warrants on Mr. Cheney and Mr. Rumsfeld, that 60 Minutes did a piece about it.

Your free to continue idolizing him, that's your right, but please don't hold him up as an "ideal". The man is the embodiment of "The Dark Side".

[shinxy]

05:00 PM on 09/01/2011

Good; he should be afraid.

[Bob Lachman]

03:18 PM on 09/01/2011

So trying to rewrite history is going to make everything better? Dick Cheney should be tried and convicted. But it should be done here in front of the whole country so they can see what is being done in our name.

[rebelriser]

01:43 PM on 09/01/2011

Whoa! Are there any members of Bush's court, I mean cabinet, who haven't written a book yet? Find the truth about what the Bush administration did by comparing what everyone of them wrote. I'm sure some of them cancel out what certain others said. That is what happens when several people try to re-write history, each in their own words to make nice for themselves. The truth, or closer to the trufh must be somehwere in there. So now they've turned on each other, but while in the Whitehouse, they compared stories so all had the same lie. Why don't we just put them all in a ring to punch each other out, charge for admission and put it toward their national debt.

[Greg Crist]

10:52 AM on 09/01/2011

OhpleaseOhpleaseOhplease!!!!!

[CarolNC]

10:33 AM on 09/01/2011

Cheney should be in prison.

[RVNGRUNT]

11:08 AM on 09/01/2011

Well, if you could get into a time machine and go back to WWII, he would have been hanged or faced a firing squad, probably summarily.

[dralfredotaule]

09:14 AM on 09/01/2011

I would also be willing to subject the tough guy, Kalid Sheik Mohamed, to a little water discomfort if it saves American lifes!
After all he decapitated an American Reporter, who was a true civilian on a video for all of us to watch. You want me to feel sorry for this cruel man who sang like an Italian tenor after a little push?
Are killing civilians with the drones torture? Is it just Chenney who must be critisized?
America wake up please!

[PartOfTheSolution]

10:29 AM on 09/01/2011

1. Interrogators themselves are nearly unanimous in stating that torture doesn't obtain reliable information.
2. To lower ourselves to the immoral and illegal tactics of the opposition removes any moral authority we might have had.
3. Revenge is wrong, plain and simple. Get some lessons in ethics, buddy.

[angryconservative]

10:56 AM on 09/01/2011

People like you, with so called ethics, get their @zzes kicked.

[skorpeo]

11:38 AM on 09/01/2011

a little push? ksm was waterboarded 183 times. after 183 times, i would start making stuff up to get you to stop.

"Are killing civilians with the drones torture?"
obama made a comment about arial bombing killing civilians in afghanistan in his reason why we needed less boots on the ground in bush's illegal war in iraq and more in afghinstan, and the repuglicans had a field day saying how dare he criticize the military.

so i pose the question to you; how dare you criticize the military?!?

[TexianLife]

09:12 AM on 09/01/2011

cheney should worry more about the backlash from God on his evil soul

[GeneralBulldog]

11:09 AM on 09/02/2011

Considering he knew the consequences of invading Iraq and taking out Saddam back in the 90's.

[LJohns1216]

09:52 AM on 09/24/2011

There is no God.

[Hoosierbrad]

08:44 AM on 09/01/2011

Can we take up a collection for a plane ticket for Mr. Cheney to Spain? I would gladly donate $10. It might result in a long vacation, indeed.

[Screed]

08:37 AM on 09/01/2011

I think if you open Cheney's book your face melts like the dude in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

[baldguy]

08:30 AM on 09/01/2011

I want this pr!ck to die in prison........

[FilthyHarry]

07:39 AM on 09/01/2011

If only they were credible fears. Sadly there is no justice in America.

[WD Simmons]

07:37 AM on 09/01/2011

Colin Powell's wife cooked for Cheney's family when he had his heart attack. and this is how Cheney thanks him. It's funny how the folks that massa Cheney criticizes the most have one immediate noticable commonality. Mr. deferment is no authority on anything concerning war.