Dick Cheney - VPFT

[MIKE BURN]

Ooops.....

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http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/11/18/turner.cheney/index.html



Ex-CIA chief: Cheney 'VP for torture'



Friday, November 18, 2005 Posted: 1503 GMT (2303 HKT)



LONDON, England -- Former CIA director Stansfield Turner has labeled Dick Cheney a "vice president for torture."



In an interview with Britain's ITV news Thursday, Turner said the U.S. vice president was damaging America's reputation by overseeing torture policies of possible terrorist suspects, the UK's Press Association reported.



"I'm embarrassed the United States has a vice president for torture," Turner said, according to ITV's Web site. "He condones torture, what else is he?"



Turner said he did not believe U.S. President George W. Bush's statements that the United States does not use torture.



Turner ran the Central Intelligence Agency from 1977 to 1981 under former U.S. President Jimmy Carter.



"We have crossed the line into dangerous territory," PA quoted Turner as saying. "I think it is just reprehensible."



Referring to Cheney, Turner said: "I just don't understand how a man in that position can take such a stance."

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[HKRockChick]

Ex-HK Governor Chris Patten was in Hong Kong last week and interviewed on TV. He mentioned he knew CP and that was exactly how he described the certain members of the bush co gang. The "unprintable Crazies". hahahahahaha



www.guardian.co.uk/usa/st...34,00.html



A furious row has broken out over claims in a new book by BBC broadcaster James Naughtie that US Secretary of State Colin Powell described neo-conservatives in the Bush administration as '@#%$ crazies' during the build-up to war in Iraq.



Powell's extraordinary outburst is alleged to have taken place during a telephone conversation with Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. The two became close friends during the intense negotiations in the summer of 2002 to build an international coalition for intervention via the United Nations. The 'crazies' are said to be Vice-President Dick Cheney, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz.



Last week, the offices of Powell and Straw contacted Public Affairs, the US publishers of Naughtie's book, to say they would vigorously deny the claims if publication went ahead. But as no legal action was threatened, the US launch of the book, The Accidental American: Tony Blair and the Presidency, will proceed as planned this week.

Naughtie stands by his claims and is said to be privately delighted that Powell and Straw have reacted so violently to the suggestion that the former US general had fallen out with the 'neo-cons'.



Provocatively, the phrase '@#%$ crazies' will be quoted on the jacket of the book, according to a source at the publisher. 'We were surprised to receive calls from the offices of Jack Straw and Colin Powell within 24 hours of each other,' the source said.



Naughtie claims that Powell and Straw spoke on an almost daily basis. Powell's concerns were said to have chimed with Straw's and those of Blair himself - that if America acted without UN sanction, allies would be lost.



Cheney and his allies were preparing for a spring war and did not wish to be deflected by the UN inspection process. Powell is thought to have been terrified that the strategy of the 'crazies' would alienate the Blair government, which believed it needed UN backing to win over Parliament and the British public.



John Kampfner, political editor of the New Statesman and author of Blair's Wars, said Naughtie's characterisation of the feverish political atmosphere of the summer of 2002 was entirely accurate. 'The British government saw Powell as the most significant voice of sanity in the US administration. At different times during this very difficult period, the Brits used Powell to get across their point of view to the White House. But, bizarrely, Powell sometimes also used Blair to pass messages to Bush.'



Kampfner's book, which covers the Blair government's military adventures in Kosovo, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan, as well as Iraq, reported that in July 2002 Blair sent his foreign policy adviser David Manning on a secret mission to Washington to deliver a letter hinting that, without a second UN resolution, Britain would not be able to join a war in Iraq.

[MIKE BURN]

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edition.cnn.com/2005/US/11/20/torture/index.html



Powell aide: Torture 'guidance' from VP

Former staff chief says Cheney's 'flexibility' helped lead to abuse



Sunday, November 20, 2005 Posted: 2218 GMT (0618 HKT)



WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A former top State Department official said Sunday that Vice President Dick Cheney provided the "philosophical guidance" and "flexibility" that led to the torture of detainees in U.S. facilities.



Retired U.S. Army Col. Larry Wilkerson, who served as former Secretary of State Colin Powell's chief of staff, told CNN that the practice of torture may be continuing in U.S.-run facilities.



"There's no question in my mind that we did. There's no question in my mind that we may be still doing it," Wilkerson said on CNN's "Late Edition."



"There's no question in my mind where the philosophical guidance and the flexibility in order to do so originated -- in the vice president of the United States' office," he said. "His implementer in this case was [Defense Secretary] Donald Rumsfeld and the Defense Department."



At another point in the interview, Wilkerson said "the vice president had to cover this in order for it to happen and in order for Secretary Rumsfeld to feel as though he had freedom of action."



Traveling in Latin America earlier this month, President Bush defended U.S. treatment of prisoners, saying flatly, "We do not torture."

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