More Lies from Vice President Cheney

The scope of absurd statements and flat out debunked assertions in Vice President Cheney's ABC interview was pretty shocking.  Spencer Ackerman debunks Cheney's statement's about the intelligence that was derived from waterboarding Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.  And Think Progress takes care of the false assertion that somehow Saddam had the capability  to produce WMDs.  I'll take on this particular claim from the Cheney interview, which was disavowed long ago by DOD.

Well, if you release people that shouldn't have been released -- and that's happened in some cases already -- you end up with them back on the battlefield.

And we've had, as I recall now -- and these are rough numbers, I'd want to check them -- but, say, approximately 30 of these folks have been held in Guantanamo, then released, and ended up back on the battlefield again, and we've encountered them a second time around. But they've either been killed or captured in further conflicts with our forces.

This is basically a flat out lie.  It  was debunked a year ago by a Seton Hall Law School Report (PDF) and then in a follow up report in June (PDF).  Even DOD doesn't stand by this number anymore and acknowledged in a hearing last year that the number is 12 at most.

Cheney's 30, included eight detainees who participated in "anti coalition activities" by speaking out against U.S. policies.  Five are Chinese Uighurs who were sent to Albania and whose return to the battlefield consisted of submitting an op-ed criticizing U.S. policy.  Another three were interviewed for a film and criticized the Bush administration.  A number of the thirty were never even verified or listed.  And in a May 20, 2008 hearing, the Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight of the House Foreign Affairs Committee DOD submitted only 12 instead of 30 detainees who had "returned to the battlefield."  Of those 12, five were arrested in Russia, Turkey and Morocco.  It's unclear if they ever plotted to attack Americans again or what exactly they were arrested for.  Five others were killed in Afghanistan, Russia and Iraq.  So basically Cheney's 30 is at most 12 and more likely somewhere between 5-10. 

It would seem relatively shocking for the Vice President of the United States to continue to cite numbers that were debunked a year ago and are completely false.  But then again, this is the man who for years was continuing to insist that Mohammad Atta met with Iraqi agents long after this claim had been debunked. 

Comments

[medici]

You can pretty much assume that if Dick Cheney says it, it's a lie.

[Paudler]

Yeah, yeah. Everybody hates Cheney. But there's a bit more debunking to be done: To "return to the battlefield" one would have to have been to a battlefield before. From what field of battle where the Chinese Uighurs whisked? The teenagers and old men who languished for years? Everybody who has been released from Guantanamo was deemed, by their captors the U.S. government, to not be a threat. Many, if not most, never were a threat. I'd be quite proud of my forbearance if, after years of false imprisonment, all I did was publicly denounce my kidnappers. With Guantanamo and who knows how many lower-profile prisons, and their random, make it up on the fly, anti-const­itutional, pseudo-mil­itary-just­ice system, Cheney and his sycophants are creating threats to civilization. No, they ARE the threat to civilization.

[brandon102]

Cheney, Bush, Rover Rove, Palin and Gingrich -- all have the same MO, to keep telling the same lies. For all I know they believe what they're saying. And they know it's an effective tactic.

For example, by simple repeating over & over that President-elect Obama is a Muslim, there is a significant minority in this country who believe that he is, even though it's been refuted many times.

Rush Limbaugh probably tells more LPM (Lies Per Minute) than anyone I'm aware of, and a fair number of people believe him and cannot be dissuaded.

People believe what they want to, and for the paranoid nutbag set, Cheney is an Oracle.

[Wiserone]

It truly just amazes how the Bush administration lied and continues with the same schtick as if people are still listening! That's the crux of it and the arrogance. Bush ET AL are parading around now as if whatever they spew will have any merit to the American people. They have been exposed for what they are, liars, yet still are delusional in thinking that any American would want to believe them. January 20th can't come soon enough.

[melissamsouza]

Dick Cheney is a Hollow Man. In any other society in history, with no checks and balances, this man would have been one of the cruelest dictators around. He oozes disdain for his fellow human beings (at least those who do not belong to his immediate circle of interests) and his anti-democratic impulses actually sting. An exceptionally brilliant and intelligent man, but with no humanity or idealism. And he has such little faith in anything or everything that he KNOWS he will get away with his deeds unscathed. It makes one wonder if he is actually right about his take on us fellow humans.

[hortonhearsawho2]

Constant lying affords no "more" to it...

[SonnyBono]

DICK Cheney lying - Not News

DICK Cheney telling the truth - NEWS to rival the second coming.
(P.S. Don't hold your breathe.)

[mamalisa38]

As my dear old Dad used to say "He's so full of sh*it his eyes are brown"

[ricsshhhtick]

Richard Cheney! Couldn't state his feelings and disdain, more precise and candid! RC, when asked about the decision to torture. Or to go to war responded with, "So what"! As if he's saying, "What are you or, the American people going to do about it? I, Richard Cheney, am the Law"!

Cheney's remarks when on camera. Often challenge, any and all to try and do something about the decisions, made by him and GWB, these past 8 years.
Is he that callous and evil a person? Or, is the cconstitution, as George W. Bush say's. Just a God dam piece of paper! Never in my 63 years of life. Had I lived through such inept leadership!
Has America decided that,, this is no country for hard workers or ethics. America is just for the wealthy!
I will go to my grave wondering. Were these past 8 years just a lesson. On the abuse of power!!! They, the Bush Cheney administration. HAve destroyed America and our way of life" Just because they could!!!!! The ultimate abuse of power!!!
riccshtick!

[fishgirl26]

So sorry you had to live to see that amount of inept leadership. Your generation deserves better, as does mine and my son's. Unfortunately we all feel the pain of what has happened.

[UNCLEJOE]

Bush Cheney created the wars, created Trillion dollar debts, runaway inflation, caused the economic meltdown with deregulating financial safeguards, continue to pass anti-environmental resolutions, and are the direct deciders who continue their cowboy failed policies that have caused genocide all over the world by opening Pandora's Box when they illegally preemptively invaded a nation they knew was innocent of the 9/11 attack and now Bush Cheney want credit for dealing unsuccessfully with the catastrophic problems that they created for this world in the first place; the Mother of all Spins!
Bush Cheney may be a rotten humanoids, but you gotta give them credit for having hubrick cojonies.

[Wiserone]

It truly just amazes how the Bush administration lied and continues with the same schtick as if people are still listening! That's the crux of it and the arrogance. Bush ET AL are parading around now as if whatever they spew will have any merit to the American people. They have been exposed for what they are, liars, yet still are delusional in thinking that any American would want to believe them. January 20th can't come soon enough.

[NationalTreasure]

recognize

[NationalTreasure]

Cheney, like the rest of the republican hypocrites, would not reconize the truth if it slapped him in the face

all Cheney can ever say are half-truths, full out lies and gross distortions of the truth -- the sad part is that Cheney is under the impression that the rest of America believes the crap he spews

[jdfast]

Impeachment anyone? Oh I forgot that Lady Nancy took it off the table. What a shame. We could have started over fresh about 2 years ago. Thanks Nancy for nothing. May you lose the next election. Shame you didn't lose this one.

[motoGpifupleez]

How do I know the world is turning on it's axis? Because I'm getting my daily dose of lies and obstructions. What WILL I do come January 21, 2009?

[Wiserone]

As far as Bush ET AL are concerned it was that "axis of evil", remember, that caused all our problems. Little did we know, the "axis of evil" was living on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

[Rrhain]

So where was ABC immediately responding to Cheney's statements with a, "That's not true, sir," and then detailed specifics showing where the Vice President's statements were false?

Oh, that's right...th­at would require the interviewer be something more than a stenographer. Can't have that pesky journalism infecting the news.

[LeftRight]

Don't worry, they are doing the real news when it comes to the Democrats!! Or at least trying to make everything stick!