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Cheney's Shadow Government
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For centuries, the vice president had no official role, says Eric Alterman, and this weekend's revelations make it clear that Dick Cheney took advantage of that to launch a personal, unaccountable branch of government.
John Adams once called the vice presidency, “the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived.” FDR’s VP, John Nance Garner, said the job wasn’t “worth a pitcher of warm piss."
It’s quotes like these that make Dick Cheney—who pretty much ran his own separate government from the VP’s office—all the more impressive, not to mention terrifying. For not only was Cheney out of control, he was out of control in a job that had no controls attached to it. No one had ever thought them necessary before.
Give the man credit for creativity. Cheney found even more ways to overturn the Constitution, undermine the separation of powers, and possibly make the U.S. government an accessory to murder many times over.
The New York Times broke half the story in Sunday’s paper as Scott Shane explained that “the Central Intelligence Agency withheld information about a secret counterterrorism program from Congress for eight years on direct orders from former Vice President Dick Cheney.” Congress finally found out eight years after Cheney gave the order, when CIA Director Leon E. Panetta informed the House and Senate intelligence committees upon learning of the program himself.
What was it? The Times—and its copycats—didn’t appear to know; but in a Wall Street Journal followup, Siobhan Gorman informs us “one former senior intelligence official” said the program was an attempt to carry out assassinations against top al Qaeda agents. Another former agent said the situation “was straight out of the movies...It was like: Let's kill them all."
We’ve had an inkling about this program before. As Gorman reports, in September 2001, U.S. officials drafted cables that would have authorized assassinations of individuals if captured during the course of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. While various drafts were proposed and then killed, Bush’s “finding” eventually authorized the murder of some top al Qaeda personnel, should an attempt to capture them prove too risky.
Philosophers and theologians have argued for centuries over the morality of targeted assassinations—a technique that the Israelis use with some frequency—without ever reaching anything approaching consensus. What is beyond argument, however, is that it is illegal for the CIA to carry out such an operation without specifically informing Congress.
According to current law, when a U.S. intelligence agency is involved in a covert action, at least eight members of Congress—the Republican and Democratic leaders of both houses of Congress and of their intelligence committees—must be informed in order for the program to be legal.
CIA defenders insist compliance with the law is actually a gray area because “this program never went fully operational” as one official put it. And Panetta terminated the program as soon as he learned of it. But given the history of both Cheney and many in the CIA’s contempt for both Congress and the Constitution, it’s entirely possible that we still don’t know the full story.
Remember, Nancy Pelosi insisted the CIA lied to her about waterboarding during autumn of 2002. (Regardless of whether the agency did in fact tell her, it would have happened, according to its own calendar, only after Abu Zubaydah had already been waterboarded 83 times.)
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Eric Alterman is a professor of English and journalism at Brooklyn College and a professor of journalism at CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. He is the author, most recently, of Why We're Liberals: A Handbook for Restoring America's Important Ideals.
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Danbury
I'll believe it when I see it. Democrats are (still) as spineless and pathetic as Republicans are thuggish and criminal.
Diane Feinstein frames the issue as though it's an inconvenience, that "it doesn't work if you work outside of the law", as though acting outside the law is a minor matter.
Obama wants to "move forward".
What I've seen is a resistance to investigating actual serious crimes like torture and lying to start a war, not to mention the criminal negligence by Bush leading up to 9/11, and an eagerness to pretend to care about the law and look busy by trying to impeach a president over a fib about sex that never even occurred.
The only thing Bush got right was in saying that the UN and acting like Congress are useless bodies that can be steamrolled right over.
SteveStephens
that's why dems always fight our wars in history, while the Repubs. get their rich dad's to arrange a deferment.
hockeydog
Perhaps an unprecedented expansion of V.P. powers requires an unprecedented response. An unprecedented response would be something other than sticking our collective head in the sand.
So, we had a rogue band running the big show these past many years. We had Karl Rove, who resigned in disgrace, as part of an "understanding" that the resignation would exempt him from being held accountable for stepping outside the rule of law. - disclosing the name of an active intelligence officer, a guy named "scooter" was handy for the fall guy - firing those who run the prosecution branch of the guv'mint (can I get an Attorney General anyone? can I get another, and another?).
Why these are just a few of Karl's fun tricks; there were many more, undisclosed, unprosecute-ables, but we will never know the full extent of his shenanigans.
We had Donny Rumsfeld resign for undisclosed reasons, but can safely assume that someone had the goods on him for stepping outside the lines.
And now we have Mr. Sneer himself, for whom Congress and the Courts are simply irritations, mere mosquitos to be swatted aside. Laws? Don't make me laugh, laws are for the little people.
So, do we ask our leaders to punish these guys? Or do we simply wink, make a little noise, and go about our "bidness as usual"? Afterall, the CIA was set up as an independant entity that answers to no one, whose activities are "off the books", invisible, and one with unlimited funding, and zero, ZERO, oversight, not to mention accountability.
I doubt if this, or any other administration will ever prosecute anyone related to this sordid stuff. Afterall, as many fellow bloggers have and will testify, we need our black ops. We need someone to do our dirty work, our wet work, we need a specific entity that is above, behind, underneath, outside of the constraints of little things like laws.
Whatever direction is taken by the Obama administration regarding this can of worms, it may turn out to be more important even, than all the money being squandered in lining the pockets of the Goldman boys.
The military in Honduras took over their show. What makes us different?
perezb
This is total nonsense. During our war for independence, we routinely assassinated British officers when the opportunity presented itself. Throughout recent history both the Russians and Israelis have employed a policy of covert wet work to rid themselves of enemies. Our leaders are morally and legally responsible to protect this country's citizens. Mr. Clinton chose to lob missiles at Bin laden to keep his both his hands and conscience clean, but this unfortunately didn't work as evidenced by 9/11. We should hunt these terrorist down, employ the most skilled practitioners of torture to ply their skills then kill these people in the most public and gruesome manner ,sending a very clear message to our enemies.
The program should be as black as possible ,to keep these holier than thou liberal writers out of the loop.
skorpeo
absolutely! and then we can change our country's name to "the taliban states of america". and don't forget to wiretap our citizen's, because even though it's against the constitution, we need to break the law in order to keep it!
JohnnyAces
"Mr. Clinton chose to lob missiles at Bin laden to keep his both his hands and conscience clean, but this unfortunately didn't work as evidenced by 9/11"
How did the Bush administration do with the same task? I believe that Bin Laden is still on the loose the last I checked. The Clinton analogy is a pretty lame one perzb. Sounds purely partisan to me.
megagood
perezb - the case for assassinations is a reasonable one - unfortunately this is not about whether they are a good idea. Our leaders do not have a free hand in protecting us, we are a nation of laws. And let's not forget that apparently we've been kept safe without using this program, since it was never operationalized.
quick456
I was told of your kind's existence, but did not believe it until now.
"We should hunt these terrorist down ... sending a very clear message to our enemies."
Really? Why not go to war with every country that doesn't support us in every way? Why stop there, let's preemptively eliminate any individual that dares question our superiority and righteousness? With all due respect to the constitution, what's stopping us? Those pesky laws.
foxbat91
"In other words, Cheney acted very much like an unelected dictator of the kind of banana republic that past U.S. presidents used to enjoy overthrowing"
Honduras, Guatemala, Chile, Iran, Cuba, etc. For most of the cold war we used the same shifty covert methods and secrecy that Cheney employed to overthrow democratically elected governments and install the dictators. The sad thing about Cheney's actions is that they represent a return to a particularly shameful part of America's own past, not that they imitate foreign dictators.
penscott
Very little is known about this program - how far it went from the conceptual stage to actuality. Alterman, one of the most biased of Daily Beast writers, is certain it was illegal, simply because he hates Cheney.
btw I'm sorry it apparently didn't get very far.
donatello
Cheney's ruse of "anything to protect America" is just another attempt to line his pockets. It's always about money with these types.
strongmind1951
what planet do you write from? All I care about is the basic security of the United States and I am a house painter. I don't care if they killed anyone in gitmo, at least we weren't attacked again.
oliverckerr
Cheney should be charged with treason. He committed treason!
The 535 must also go. Dump the 535.
michaelslevinson.com e quills the vehicle for World Peace.
megagood
Assassinations are a defensible tactic. Unfortunately for those that seem eager to defend Cheney, the issue is whether it's legal for the VP to use the tactic without Congressional oversight. It's not. If Cheney did these things, he broke the law. If he didn't, he didn't. I don't understand why so many Republicans, who historically distrust the government and believe in personal accountability, are so eager to trust the government and not hold people accountable.
JackDavis1
More Dick Cheneys; fewer liberal whiners. Yeah, that's the ticket.
curtisthecurtis
You should move to the PR of China, they have lots of "Dicks" there and very few liberals...liberal whiners there like the Uhigars get shot arrested and executed, judging from your post I bet you'd like it...
TheWiseBard
The question of whether targetted assassinations of al-Qaida leaders is justifiable is quite distinct from the question of who has the authority, subject to what checks and oversight, to authorize such a program. The "original intent" of our Constitutional framers was to be quite suspicious of unchecked executive authority. For better or worse, in the aftermath of 9/11, Congress (including Democrats) pretty much gave the Executive whatever it asked for in the name of security. There was neither need nor justification for refusing even the minimal briefing of Congressional leaders required by law. There is an urgent need for accountability for those who appropriated unchecked and lawless power to themselves. Cheney is the poster boy for power corrupted absolutely.
--The Wise Bard
hockeydog
Well stated.
valwayne
Imagine, a former Chief of Staff to President Ford, Secretary of Defense to Bush I, Elected to the office of VP and President of the Senate, actually given real power and a real role to play fighting the terrorists who killed 3000 Americans on 9/11. I know Democrats can't even imagine"""LOL"""Joe Turrets Syndrome Biden playing a role other than court jester. And the results? At at time when the nation was expecting more attacks and more deaths at almost any time we were kept safe. Nobody got through the again during Bush/Cheney. VP Cheney...Thank you for being able to keep a state secret...and thank you for keeping us safe!
curtisthecurtis
Funny those that want to thank Bush and Chaney for keeping us safe since 9/11 always forget they didn't do a very good job of keeping us safe before 9/11 as in the day of 9/11/01 when the most devastating terrorist attack in US history killing over 3000people occurred...I know Republicans have short term memory issues, but that was under Bush and Chaney's watch remember, and that was even after they were warned...and somehow we're suppose to thank them? I suppose you'd also be the type to thank Chaney after he shot you in the face. You Republicans seem to be psychotic like that. BTW using your logic...we should also be thanking Bush and Chaney for protecting us from the Martians since we weren't invaded by Mars while on their watch, also for protecting us from the zombie dead that didn't rise up to take over the world, and maybe for saving us from the asteroid impact that didn't happen. All while were not suppose to blame them for starting a war in Iraq using lies and false pretense, or for shredding the constitution with illegal spying on US citizens...no they're not suppose to be responsible for the no-bid contracts they gave away to coincidentally their friends and cronies or the secret energy meeting with executives prior to the Enron CA Energy rip off or the skyrocketing prices of energy while they made record profits. No Bush or Chaney are not responsible for the out of control deficits even though the deficits grew directly from polices they had in place for the last 8 years like fighting the war off-budget. And who says Republicans have no sense of humor, valwayne just showed he's a comedian of the first order...
Cymatic
You mean after 3000 deaths on their watch, Bush (too lazy to read memos) and Cheney (busy scheming about oil profits) did a great job!? Cheney made a fortune off his Haliburton stocks in the aftermath... just happened to work out that way I guess.
So does this mean that if 3000 die during Obama's watch and then he doesn't let any more through, then you will congratulate him for his success? Don't forget, Al Qaida attacked before 9/11 and the memos and warnings were ignored.
humanrace
Have you read The Co-Presidency of Bush and Cheney by
Shirley Anne Warshaw?
This is a pimple on the butt of the actions of Dick.
The books original title was Dicked.
Read it and weep. Dick deserves jail time, no less
pious1001
Yes, our good friends the Israelis have a stated policy of targeted assassinations (in matters of national security), seems hypocritical that the U.S. should be criticized for same. So good for an ally but not good for us? That aside the plan in question never went ahead anyway, storm in a teacup!
SkipNJ
This isn't a partisan matter, elected officials broke laws and undermined the constitution. We should be angry and paranoid that the government has the ability to crap all over anyone at any time without any oversight and no consequences. But all some can say is "they kept us safe" and "Everyone else is doing it". Ridiculous.
gommygoomy
You guys are so funny. You're so concerned about our ENEMIES, all the time. You don't seem to mind if we kill them. We just have to kill them 'nicely', without any Malice, and for Gods' sake, don't use any hate speach while you're doing it. Why do you care HOW we go about killing an enemy, who would BUTCHER your children, right before your eyes, and put their severed heads on a plate and make you eat them? WHO CARES how they die, as long as they're DEAD? Such compassion, for men who throw ACID in the faces of little girls who try to go to school. Who put children in their cars, to make it easier to go through the check points, and then DETONATE the cars, with the unsuspecting kids, still inside. Who ARE you people? Our FATHERS and GRANDFATHERS burned DRESDEN to the ground. They fire bombed TOKYO, incinerating over 100,000. They NUKED HIROSHIMA and NAGASAKI. And we call them; The Greatest Generation. Because they knew how to GET THE JOB DONE. Apparently, our feminized, sissyfied population, no longer has the STOMACH for a fight.
The Congress wasn't 'informed' about a SECRET, BLACK OPS? And, by Congress, you mean The New York Times. You mean The Washington Post. You mean Newsweek and Time, Ask Pat Leahy about keeping SECRETS, secret. Ask Pat Leahy why he was THROWN OFF of the SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE. Thank GOD for men like DICK CHENEY. This hapless little Lefty PUKE, in the White House reeks of weakness. And all of our enemies can smell it. And all you teary eyed Libs, will have a front row seat, when we're hit again. All you CITY dwellers. Idiots.
Humor-In-Uniform
For all that enjoy the freedoms this country allows, realize this. Defending our freedoms is much like making sausage, you enjoy the end product, but you don't really want to see how it's made. There are many ugly truths out in this world of ours and thankfully, many patriotic people that will put their lives on the line to ensure our collective safety.
If you don't like it here, find another Utopia that will satisfy your needs. I'm an active duty service member and have been all over the world and currently serving in Iraq. I will tell you, there is no where better than the United States. We aren't perfect, but we're certainly better than anywhere else.
If your emails or phone calls are being monitored, it is only because you have said or written something that has focused attention upon yourself...if you're clean you're forgotten. The threats that exist today are far beyond your wildest imagination and the fact that we have people that will take them head on is commendable. Enjoy your freedom and quit looking for scapegoats for your partisan anger.
hockeydog
Humor, we are glad you are "on watch". Keep in mind that freedoms need to be fought for on many fronts. The exercising of our right to free speech is also a battlefront. To be able to identify corruption, even within our own people, and to have public discourse about that corruption is another part of this battlefield for the American heart and mind.
Many of us have served our country, and I sincerely hope that while on your watch, you are not given an order to commit a heinous act which you know to be wrong. Hopefully, in that event, your good strong character will step forward and you will abide by the laws of man and God.
And here on the home front, people like you and our fellow bloggers will monitor our leaders with an eye to encouraging them to also abide by the same Laws. It appears that Dick Cheney has not met this standard.
Thank you.
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