Dick Cheney: Obama increases terror threat

Monday, March 16. Former vice president Dick Cheney has said that Barack Obama's decisions to close Guantanamo Bay and outlaw certain interrogation techniques will mean America becomes more vulnerable to terrorist attack. His comments are similar to remarks he made in a February interview with Politico when Cheney warned that Islamic terrorists would soon attempt a large-scale biological or nuclear attack on the US.

Speaking to CNN's John King in his first televised interview since leaving office (see video below), Cheney said Obama had been "making some choices that in my mind will raise the risk to the American people of another attack". Cheney also claimed that the information gathered from terror detainees by the Bush administration was "absolutely essential to the success we enjoy, of being able to collect the intelligence that led us to defeat all further attempts to launch attacks against the United States since 9/11."

Cheney continued: "I think it's a great success story. It was done legally, it was done in accordance with our constitutional practices and principles." And the 68-year-old also reiterated his belief that the war in Iraq had been a success. "I think it was absolutely the right thing to do," he said, "and I think when history reviews this period 10 or 20 years hence, what will be significant was that we did, in fact, accomplish what we set out to do."

Writing for New York magazine, Chris Rovzar says the interview raises two questions. First, when does Cheney intend to tell America just what attacks have been foiled thanks to aggressive interrogation techniques. And second "Why is Dick Cheney still talking? Wasn't the 2008 election a resounding referendum on why America doesn't want to hear from him anymore?"

In the Washington City paper, Erik Wemple is similarly disparaging. "Now the American public is finally seeing the Cheney chutzpah in full, unobstructed mode," he says. "I mean, does this guy really believe that we can hold people at Guantanamo in perpetuam?"

FIRST POSTED MARCH 16, 2009