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Cheney to Obama: Rethink Tossing Terror Policies
January 07, 2009 9:00 PM
ABC News' Tahman Bradley reports:
You could say Barack Obama started the feud with his campaign rhetoric about Bush administration security tactics.
During the course of the presidential campaign, he slammed the outgoing administration's positions on warrantless wiretapping, interrogation and Guantanamo Bay.
He said the country was less safe than it used to be because the government, distracted by Iraq, had lost focus on al-Qaeda.
Then, the feud escalated when Vice President Dick Cheney began defending the Bush administration and clashed with Vice President-elect Joe Biden over the role of the vice presidency. Biden, complaining Cheney had overstepped his authority, said the veep had given recommendations to Bush "not healthy for our foreign policy, not healthy for our national security, and it has not been consistent with our Constitution." Cheney, in response, accused Biden of not understanding the Constitution.
And in the latest episode, "the Angler" offered a few words of advice for the president-elect.
In an interview with CBS Radio's Mark Knoller, Cheney urged Obama to keep security polices enacted during the last eight years because they were vital to keeping the country safe.
"If I had advice to give it would be, before you start to implement your campaign rhetoric, you need to sit down and find out precisely what it is we did and how we did it, because it is going to be vital to keeping the nation safe and secure in the years ahead," said Cheney.
"And it would be a tragedy if they threw over those policies simply because they had campaigned against them. I think they need to proceed very cautiously before they begin to change the policies that are in place. They need to know what they're doing."
Cheney also said it's easier campaigning than governing.
"Well, I've been through a lot of campaigns myself -- two national campaigns, obviously, running for vice president -- and the situation changes once you sit down in the Oval Office and begin to receive on a daily basis the president's daily brief -- intelligence briefing that the intelligence community pulls together and the CIA presents every morning about what's going on in the world, and about threats, threats to the homeland, problems we face overseas.
"And it is a tough, dangerous, complex world that we live in. And my experience has been, having been through 40 years in the business, that there's nothing like sitting down at the desk and having to deal with those problems to have a sobering effect on somebody's outlook and expectations."
January 7, 2009 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (125)
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yep the next big one Obama and Panetta owns, no ifs and or buts...If we are hit again then Obama is to blame for his weak appointment to the Cia..and the Media will scramble to protect Obama adn his extremely poor judgement
Posted by: MSN exposed | Jan 7, 2009 9:12:05 PM
My guess is that he will cost the lives of many and life as we now know it to be in this once great country... God Bless America....We seem to need it....
Posted by: Lumberman_63 | Jan 7, 2009 9:25:27 PM
If we get hit again it will be by one of the many terrorists created by the Bush administration's reckless foreign policy, so get off your soapbox.
Posted by: MSN exposed exposed | Jan 7, 2009 9:30:44 PM
As I remember we were attacked without provocation and the terrorists were in pilot training while Clinton was president. Reckless foreign policy, yes, Clinton was extremely reckless. He had the chance to take Bin Laden but he passed. He did nothing about the first tower attack and then nothing about the African embassy attacks. Then stood by while the USS Cole was attacked. It is no wonder we were attacked and it is no wonder that nobody has attacked us since. If Obama isn't careful, the lack of intelligence will open us up to attack again and he will be responsible.
Posted by: Brian | Jan 7, 2009 9:37:30 PM
Go into crawl into some hole Mr.Cheney.....we dont need your suggestions any more.
Posted by: shosilk | Jan 7, 2009 9:38:14 PM
Lumberman, Bush did not create terrorists,he has been fighting them. That is like saying that FDR created Facists and Communists. They were there long before FDR.
I am sure that will be the excuse that all the liberals will give.
By the way, when was the last time that we heard how horrible the Iraq War was going???? Amazing how that is starting to be a bright spot.
Posted by: colcal | Jan 7, 2009 9:39:08 PM
Cheney is wiseman,we missed you very much, Vice president.Thank for your "loving and dedication" to our country.May God bless you.
Posted by: chulluu | Jan 7, 2009 9:39:33 PM
The new administration will take it under advisement, now get out. Our constitution has been ignored by the bush administration for 8 years. I hope the new president tosses out all executive orders from the last president on the first day and works toward getting rid of the un-patriot act as soon as possible. If anything has contributed to another terrorist attack it is the bush administration kidnapping several people and holding them indefinitely without any charges being filed. Keeping them in solitary confinement for 8 years with no hope of a trial. Kind of like taking a hornets nest and beating it inside a bag. Eventually we must release these people, then what do you think they will do?
Posted by: james4570 | Jan 7, 2009 9:41:14 PM
james--Please let me know how the Patriot Act changed your life so dramatically.
Also, those guys we "kidnapped" would as soon slit your, or my, throat as say thank you for your support. I'd pay to see you try and give one of them a hug.
Posted by: i just love him soooo much | Jan 7, 2009 9:47:50 PM
Nothing Like experience for that 3 AM phone call!
Posted by: disgusted in Ohio | Jan 7, 2009 9:51:13 PM
The country can still be safe after tossing out the warrantless wiretapping and unethical torture especially waterboarding.
Posted by: A1234G | Jan 7, 2009 9:51:26 PM
I cannot stand George Bush's policies on the border and Iraq and I think he sold out the American people but his biggest problem was he acted like a whimp when the democrats called him every name in the book for 8 years. Bush acted like he was a high school cheerleader or something-wait he really was. He was very liberal on many ideas and still the democrats in all their lying garbage did not like him because it gave them a chance to regain power which they did and the rest is history-Bush destroyed the republican party and Jeb Bush knows he has a bad last name and does not have a chance to be elected anything and that is why he did not run for the Senate!
Posted by: rockychance | Jan 7, 2009 10:00:13 PM
Thank President Bush ,Vice president Cheney and all current administration. We missed you, American people will reconize your hard works for our country in the last 8 years,although some people with "narrow mind" hated you because you are the person who kept the promise and leaded us not by polls but by principals and convictions.again, thanks all of you and your hard works.May God bless you and all American.
Posted by: chuluu | Jan 7, 2009 10:00:25 PM
The media with the exception of fox news will protect Obama as long as they can for they do have a vested interest in is success. After they all but hi-jacked the election for Obama with their bias reporting.
I hope Obama is for real in my heart, but my brain tells me he has never done anything and he will not change. When I see him with ried and palosi it scares me and reinforces my fears how can he be anything with losers like these around him.
Palosi has don't nothing for years. God help us all. Let's pray that Obama is special.
Posted by: a citizen | Jan 7, 2009 10:05:55 PM
I do not think anyone needs the advice of a person in my opinion is war criminal.
Cheney apparently thinks he is a god or dictator and has grandoise ideas that what he says should be the law. The law should prosecute him for his actions as our vice president.
Cheney is one of reasons and Bush is the other that most of the nations of the world think we are no better than the USSR when they were trying to take over the world. Bush and Cheney has not given any nation a reason to believe otherwise.
They are the worst pair that has ever ruled this nation and I firmly believe history will bear that out.
Posted by: Carl Justus | Jan 7, 2009 10:08:28 PM
Cheney...the president behind the president...oh, sorry, the vice-president behind the president.
Posted by: Old Glory | Jan 7, 2009 10:14:34 PM
Obama does not need to take any advice from Cheney. Look at the damage him and Bush have done to this country. Also recall he is the chickenhawk... When Cheney was asked to go to war he got 5 different diferments. What a COWARD!!!
All NEOCONS should crawl under a rock and never show their cowardly faces again
Posted by: joe | Jan 7, 2009 10:20:12 PM
George Bush's policies are the best for safety of America.Obama needs to keep and follow Vice President Cheney's advises if he wants to keep nation safe and secure.
Obama suporters ,who have more experiences ,talents than vice president Cheney "in military and foreign policy"?
good night.
Posted by: luuchu | Jan 7, 2009 10:21:09 PM
We have real enemies and real dangers to our freedom and our security. They pose one source of threats.
The other source of threats is that in trying to protect ourselves, we destroy our freedom in the name of protecting our security. The Bush Administration, including VP Cheney, seems clueless about this.
Even with all that in mind, I am very apprehensive about the Inauguration.
Posted by: Modesty Press | Jan 7, 2009 10:28:35 PM
Terrorists will no longer bother us if we stop arming Israel.
Posted by: 1bluestocking | Jan 7, 2009 10:31:08 PM
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