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For the past few weeks, former Vice President Dick Cheney, who managed to hide away during the two term of the Bush Administration, has been showing himself on variety of TV programs and accusing the Obama’s administration time after time for weakening the United States as well as endangering the US lives.
Mr. Cheney’s argument is that by publishing the so-called “Torture Memos” as well as closing down the Guantanamo Bay prison, the United States is placed in a harmful position. In order to hammer this message home, Mr. Cheney has sought the assistance of his daughter, Liz Cheney who like her father is making rounds to various TV programs and basically repeating what her father has said and also defending her father for past wrongs.
The two Cheneys argue that what the Bush administration did in term of extracting information from the detainees were just and produced valuable information and the techniques used were not torture and in fact were legal. According to the Cheneys water boarding is not tortured enhanced interrogation techniques (EIT) which include degrading treatment of the detainees of whom 20 were killed while in US custody were not tortured. Their claim is in direct contradiction to the international laws and the Red Cross findings.
The International treaty that many countries including the US have signed bans harsh and degrading treatment of the prisoners of wars or any other detainees. It also bans water boarding as it is torture, but yet the Cheneys very loudly and proudly argue that these treatments were legal and did not constitute torture.
The former Vice President rather than taking the back seat and letting the new president who was overwhelmingly elected to do what he promised to do, he is willfully and intentionally intermeddling and causing problems. Even many of the Republican leaderships are uncomfortable with Mr. Cheney’s arguments and his constant attacks on the new administration.
What Mr.Cheney fails to realize is that releasing those memos could prove that Bush administration tortured the detainees and under both the US and the International laws the leadership of Bush administration become subject to criminal prosecution.
Mr. Cheney keeps challenging the Obama’s administration to release all the memos so to prove that enhanced interrogation techniques worked and saved American lives. What Mr.Cheney fails to realize is that releasing those memos could prove that Bush administration tortured the detainees and under both the US and the International laws the leadership of Bush administration become subject to criminal prosecution.
Mr. Cheney has argued that enhanced interrogation techniques has worked, that means water boarding worked and the Bush administration managed to get very valuable information from application of EIT. Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, one of the detainees, was water boarded 186 times in span of 31 days, that means 6 times each and every day. Another detainee, Abu Zubeyda, was water boarded over 83 times. One wonders when did the Bush administration got the valuable information from these detainees, was it after the first water boarding or after the last one!!
Then remains the issue of American values and what the rest of the world thinks of the US. According to the Cheneys, US has done nothing wrong and contrary has saved many lives. The irony is that the US keeps bashing other regimes throughout the world for violating human rights, imprisoning people for no reason or holding them in custody for many years without any trial and so on. Over 800 peoples were snatched throughout the world and shipped to the Guantanamo Bay and were held for years without any charge or trial. About 100 have died while in the Custody of the US of which 20 deaths were classified as homicide. Over 500 detainees were eventually released without ever going through any trial or judicial proceedings after many years of incarceration. There are over 240 or so detainees still left in Guantanamo who have not been charged with anything and just rotting away in their cells.
There are also other detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other parts of the world who are not accounted for who have been sitting in jails for years without any charges. The kidnapping of suspects from various countries and shipping them to the secret prisons in countries that the US knows they would be tortured has created worldwide resentment and have helped groups such as Al-Qaeda or Talibans to recruit more fighters.
Despite all the evidence discovered, witnesses testifying, and arguments made by the experts of whom many of them are Republicans, the Cheneys still argue that the Obama’s administration should continue with the Bush’s policies in treatment of the detainees and continue to make the same false arguments which have been proved to be not only false, but also deceptive. One wonders if Mr. Cheney is trying to muddy the water so he won’t be charged and prosecuted for torture, war crimes, and human rights violation.
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