FLASHBACK: Secret Service agents say Cheney was drunk when he shot lawyer

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Click on cartoon to enlarge

A written report from Secret Service agents guarding Vice President Dick Cheney when he shot Texas lawyer Harry Whittington on a hunting outing two weeks ago says Cheney was "clearly inebriated" at the time of the shooting.

Agents observed several members of the hunting party, including the Vice President, consuming alcohol before and during the hunting expedition, the report notes, and Cheney exhibited "visible signs" of impairment, including slurred speech and erratic actions, the report said.

According to those who have read the report and talked with others present at the outing, Cheney was drunk when he gunned down his friend and the day-and-a-half delay in allowing Texas law enforcement officials on the ranch where the shooting occurred gave all members of the hunting party time to sober up.

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Cheney seeks multimillion-dollar book deal

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With his sustained blitz of television appearances and speeches, former Vice President Dick Cheney has established himself as perhaps the leading Republican voice against President Barack Obama.

Not a bad time, then, to be in the market for a multimillion-dollar book contract.

Cheney is actively shopping a memoir about his life in politics and service in four presidential administrations, a work that would add to what is already an unusually dense collection of post-Bush-presidency memoirs that will offer a collective rebuttal to the many harshly critical works released while they were in office and beyond.

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A chapter will be written by former President George W. Bush. Here’s a short review:

“Err…I…bring ‘em on…damn pretzel…my pet goat…and we do not torture.”

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The Week's Late-Night Laughs

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"I am laughing, dammit! Go f*ck yourselves! Ha, ha ha."

They found a 47 million-year-old fossil that they think may be the missing link between man and ape. And I thought, "Wait a minute -- I thought that was the governor of California?"

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Dick Cheney gave a speech on terror. I guess it was well received. He was so excited he went outside and waterboarded people.

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I can't believe Dick Cheney. He keeps giving speeches, and he's appearing on TV news shows. It's like he thinks he's still president.

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Former vice-president Dick Cheney's been in the news a lot, attacking Obama. For eight years, he never said two words, now he's like Regis.

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He's making so many speeches lately, I'm starting to think he's not dead.

MORE

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Israeli ministers: No West Bank settlement freeze

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Senior members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet reiterated Sunday that the government has rejected a U.S. demand to halt all activity in West Bank settlements, despite strongly-worded demands from the Obama administration to do so.

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"You don't tell us what to do. We tell you what to do. By the way, where's our two billion dollars for this year?" - Official Star Of David Souse

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Why the Pentagon Is Probably Lying About its Supressed Sodomy and Rape Photos

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This is probably exactly what the photos show, because it happened. The same-sex crimes against detainees have been documented.

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Man wins $1 billion judgment against Fidel Castro, Che Guevara

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Fidel and Che

A Miami-Dade judge awarded more than $1 billion to a man whose father committed suicide in the early days of the Cuban Revolution.

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The IDF's "Environmental" Tank

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A kinder, gentler tank? Not exactly. The Israeli military is working what it calls a "dust remover" tank--a tank with undiminished destructive capabilities, except for the environment. (Israeli military photograph)

The IDF is currently dealing with environmental damages caused by the dust created during the usage of tanks and other armored vehicles, as a part of its commitment to the environment.

The Quality Testing Department of the Technological Brigade of the Ground Forces believes that it has found the solution. They call it, the Dust Remover.

Don't you love the Aldoux Huxley type Quality-Testing vocabulary (is was Huxley, after all, who wrote Eyeless in Gaza), the self-congratulatory tenor of the prose, that dramatic pause-inducing comma just before "the Dust Remover"?

Imagine reading this from the perspective of, say, a Lebanese who's experienced the effects of Israeli tanks firsthand and with crushing regularity for most of the past 30 years, or a Palestinian in the West Bank and Gaza, where Israeli tanks have a longer (but less lethal, if you can believe it) history.

The dust the machines kick up has not been, it's relatively safe to say, these people's greatest concern. It gets worse:

The stirred up dust makes it difficult to breathe for humans close to the vehicles, and makes it impossible for small animals to move on the routes the vehicles passes through.

Are they serious? Is the concern really the little rabbits who scurry across tank tracks?

Of course it is. At least we know who matters and who doesn't. The implied message here may not be intended, but it reflects the Israeli military's attitude, so evident in Gaza earlier this year or in Lebanon in 2006, the more accurately for it: the human beings at the receiving end of tanks' lethality are worth less than the rabbits in their wake.

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"From now on, when we attack Gaza, the West Bank or Lebanon and kill thousands of innocent civilians, we will no longer disrupt the lives of the little bunnies and other wild life in the area. We have a heart, after all." - Offcial Star Of David Souse

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Israel Killed Our Liberty

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USS Liberty Memorial

On June 8, 1967, US Navy intelligence ship USS Liberty was suddenly and brutally attacked on the high seas in international waters by the air and naval forces of Israel.

The Israeli forces attacked with full knowledge that this was an American ship and lied about it. Survivors have been forbidden for 40 years to tell their story under oath to the American public.

The USS Liberty Memorial web site tells their story and is dedicated to the memory of the 34 brave men who died.

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The Israeli Spy Ring

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ALL LINKS TO CARL CAMERON'S FOX NEWS STORY ON THE ISRAELI SPY RING HAVE BEEN REMOVED AT THE EXPRESS REQUEST OF FOX NEWS.

However, you can still view them HERE


"Israel does not spy on the United States of America."
-- Mark Regev, a spokesman at the Israeli embassy in Washington

Prior to 9/11, the FBI had discovered the presence of a massive spy ring inside the United States run by the government of Israel. This seems a harsh gratitude from a nation which obtains 10% of its annual budget from the American taxpayer, $3+ billion a year. Over the years, American taxpayers have been required to send Israel more than four times what the US spent to go to the moon.

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SEE THIS VIDEO ALSO

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Levin: Memos don't show what Cheney says they do

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Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, says former Vice President Dick Cheney's claims -- that classified CIA memos show enhanced interrogation techniques like waterboarding worked -- are wrong.

Former VP Dick Cheney has been a vocal defender of Bush-era interrogation techniques.

Levin, speaking at the Foreign Policy Association's annual dinner in New York on Wednesday, said an investigation by his committee into detainee abuse charges over the use of the techniques -- now deemed torture by the Obama administration -- "gives the lie to Mr. Cheney's claims."

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US man fined in Israeli spy case

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Prosecutors said that between 1980 and 1985 Kadish provided information about nuclear weapons, fighter jets and missiles to an Israeli agent, Yosef Yagur, who photographed the documents at Kadish's residence.

"Why it took the government 23 years to charge Mr Kadish is shrouded in mystery," US District Judge William Pauley said during sentencing in Manhattan federal court.

"It is clear the (US) government could have charged Mr Kadish with far more serious crimes."

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Bush Administration Opposite-Speak Continues

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By Chimpplanet

In order to learn what George Bush and his cronies really meant during his reign all you had to do was replace what they said with the complete opposite meaning.

Even today, George Bush, Dick Cheney and the Pentagon continue speaking in this “opposite” English.

Here are some current and prior examples:

“Harsh Interrogations”: Torture.

“Photos do not show rape”: Photos show rape and worse.

“We do not torture”: We torture.

“Torture saved lives”: Torture caused retaliation and more death.

“No child left behind”: Only the wealthy children get a good education. All others work at Wal-Mart.

“Clear skies initiative”: Allow large corporations to increase pollution.

“Homeland Security”: Be afraid. Be very afraid.

“Al-Qaeda Terrorists”: Do not exist. CIA made up the name “Al-Qaeda” which means “toilet” in Arab.

“Osama bin Laden is alive”: Osama bin Laden died in 2001.

“Town hall meetings”: Staged and rehearsed one-sided press and photo ops.

“God spoke through me”: Cheney told me to invade.

If you listen and think when George Bush and Cheney and others speak, you will find that when they open their mouths, they automatically “opposite-speak”.

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Bush And Cheney, In A Panic, Defend Their “Torture Administration”

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By Chimpplanet

Former VP, Dick Cheney dashed out of his underground bunker as soon as President Obama released the CIA torture memos. He has been all over the media and other speaking venues claiming that US torture is legal and saved thousands of American lives.

The Pentagon also came to the defense of torture as it tried to quash a former general’s claims that the pictures Obama doesn’t want released show horrific torture and rape of detainees. For some unknown reason, the Pentagon feels that rape of our prisoners is worse than waterboarding, electrocuting, dog chewing, etc.

The retired general claims that a male prisoner is shown being raped with a fluorescent tube in these pictures. Imagine a fluorescent tube being shoved up your butt and imagine this tube breaking. The death of this human being would be horrifying.

The only way we will know if the Pentagon is telling the truth is by releasing these photos. Let’s make the Pentagon and Cheney happy and release all the torture photos and memos.

Now, George W. Bush comes out of the closet and defends torture (that never happened) by claiming it was all legal because his lawyers said so. Alberto Gonzales (initially his personal lawyer) led the path to legalizing torture. Lawyer John Yoo wrote memos describing what torture is “legal”. Current judge John Bybee did the same.

Basically, these Bush lawyers acquiesced to Bush and Cheney and changed the word “torture” to “harsh interrogation”. And that made it all legal. How harsh? Until they die?

President Obama says we need to look forward and not back. The problem is that if we don’t review and prosecuted our mistakes we will make them again.

Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Gonzales, Yoo, Bybee and others must be tried and punished for their crimes. Then, we can move forward.

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Bush backs 'torturous' interrogation methods

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In his first public address since leaving the White House, former president George W. Bush has defended torturing detainees of his 'War on Terror'.

The 43rd US president, in a speech to The Economic Club of Southwestern Michigan at Lake Michigan College, said everything he had done in his term was in line with the United States' legal system.

"The first thing you do is ask what's legal?" Bush told an audience of about 2,500 people on Thursday.

"What do the lawyers say is possible? I made the decision, within the law, to get information so I can say to myself, 'I've done what it takes to do my duty to protect the American people.' I can tell you that the information we got saved lives," he argued.

His successor, Barack Obama, earlier banned the harsh interrogation methods used by CIA officials against terror suspects during the Bush administration.

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"Of course, we had to waterbiard the White House legal team until they gave us the justification for torture, but we got it. Yoo and Bybee said it was all legal." - Official Bush White Horse Souse

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Torture And Truth

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Or as he (Obama) said in the National Archives speech, "We need to focus on the future" while resisting those "with a strong desire to focus on the past."

But can the United States really get things right in the future by turning away from the past?

For one thing, the factual record is still incomplete.

For another, the reasons for what went wrong aren't as clear as they might at first seem.

Why did the United States make the decision for torture?

What changes does it portend for American life? It seems likely that getting things right will depend on having answers to these questions.

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Pentagon Denies Photos Show Rape

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The Pentagon on Thursday denied a British newspaper report that photographs of Iraqi prisoner abuse, whose release U.S. President Barack Obama wants to block, include images of apparent rape and sexual abuse.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the Daily Telegraph newspaper had shown "an inability to get the facts right".

Major Gen. Antonio Taguba, here in 2004, has told a British newspaper that photos of Iraqi prisoner abuse depict "every indecency," including apparent rape. He said he supports President Barack Obama's decision not to release the photos.

"That news organization has completely mischaracterized the images," Whitman told reporters. "None of the photos in question depict the images that are described in that article."

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“We do not rape our prisoners. We waterboard them, we electrocute them, we have wild dogs chew on them and we even kill them, but we never rape them. That would be inhuman.” - Official White Horse Souse

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Amnesty slams G20 over human rights

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Amnesty International has slammed the world's most powerful G20 countries for their sometimes "horrific" human rights record.

Australia, although a G20 member, is spared some of the harshest criticism.

But the list of human rights abuses in the G20 countries collectively is "depressingly long", Amnesty International says.

The human rights group cites arbitrary detention without charge or trial in 14 of the G20 nations, unfair trials in nine, and torture or grave ill-treatment during interrogation in 15.

Five of the G20 countries - China, Saudi Arabia, the USA, Indonesia and Japan - are also singled out for carrying out 78 per cent of all state executions across the world.

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Photos ‘show Abu Ghraib American guards raping prisoners’

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Images of rape and torture are among photographs of abuse at Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq that Barack Obama is blocking from release, a former general claimed today.

One photo reportedly shows an American soldier raping a female prisoner and another was said to show a translator raping a male detainee.

Others are said to depict sexual assaults with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube.

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Do CIA Cables Show Doctors Monitoring Torture?

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Evidence is emerging that medical personnel monitored the medical effects of the waterboarding of Abu Zubaydah, the al-Qaida operative who was, according to government reports, subjected to the near-drowning at least 83 times in August 2002.

The new information comes from descriptions of cables, classified as top secret and relating to the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, that were transmitted from a Central Intelligence Agency field station to the agency's Langley, Va., headquarters nearly every day between Aug. 1 and Aug. 18 that year.

The descriptions of the cables (here [2] and here [3]) reveal that a daily "medical update" and "behavioral comments" along with status and threat updates were sent to CIA headquarters throughout that period.

On five occasions between Aug. 4 and Aug. 9, an additional cable was sent containing "medical information" along with such information as the strategies for interrogation sessions, raw intelligence, the use of interrogation techniques to elicit information, and the reactions to those techniques.

The fact that medical information was included in these cables hints that Abu Zubaydah was medically monitored during or after being subjected to those techniques.

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Fidel Castro: Torture Can Never Be Justified

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Che Guevara and Fidel Castro

The leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, said torture is a cowardly and shameful act that can never be justified.

Fidel Castro referred to a National Security speech delivered by former US Vice President Dick Cheney on May 21.

On this issue, the Cuban leader wrote, "what characterized Cheney's speech was his defense of torture as a method to obtain information under certain circumstances."

"Regardless of the pain caused by the actions against the people of the United States on September 11, 2001 --actions that everyone strongly condemned-- torture is a cowardly and shameful act that can never be justified," he noted.

"Nevertheless, terrorism didn't just come out of the blue: it was the method thought up by the United States to combat the Cuban Revolution," the revolutionary leader stressed.

"There were not just actions against our economy and our people but also those directed to eliminate the leaders of the Revolution. They are on the record in the declassified U.S. government documents. In our country, despite the very serious dangers that have threatened us for decades, we have never tortured anyone to obtain information," Fidel Castro wrote.

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Israel rejects US call over settlement work

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Israel will continue to allow some construction in West Bank settlements despite US calls for a freeze on its work, a government spokesman says.

Mark Regev said the fate of the settlements should be decided in peace negotiations with the Palestinians.

His remarks appear to be a rebuff to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who said all such activity should cease.

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"Don't worry about American pressure, we the Jewish people control America."

-- Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, October 2001. According to Israel Radio (in Hebrew) Kol Yisrael

"The Israelis control the policy in the congress and the senate."

-- Senator Fullbright, Chair of Senate Foreign Relations Committee: 10/07/1973 on CBS' "Face the Nation".

"I am aware how almost impossible it is in this country to carry out a foreign policy [in the Middle East] not approved by the Jews..... terrific control the Jews have over the news media and the barrage the Jews have built up on congressmen .... I am very much concerned over the fact that the Jewish influence here is completely dominating the scene and making it almost impossible to get congress to do anything they don't approve of. The Israeli embassy is practically dictating to the congress through influential Jewish people in the country"

-- Sec. of State John Foster Dulles quoted on p.99 of Fallen Pillars by Donald Neff

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U.S. Miltary Takes Long-Term Lease With Option to Buy in Iraq & Afghanistan

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US Embassy Baghdad Iraq

Remember those campaign promises to bring a swift and honorable peace in the two wars that President Obama inherited? Forget about it.

Gen. George Casey, Army chief of staff, said Tuesday his planning envisions combat troops in Iraq and Afghanistan for a decade as part of a sustained U.S. commitment to fighting extremism and terrorism in the Middle East.

"Global trends are pushing in the wrong direction," Casey said. "They fundamentally will change how the Army works."

The U.S. currently has about 139,000 troops in Iraq. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told the Iraqi government in February that all U.S. troops would be out of that country by 2012. Except, of course, for the ones that Gen. Casey wants to keep there.

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What’s in a Statement?

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David Bruce Vitter, the junior United States Senator from Louisiana, enjoys a relaxing evening at home after a shitty day at the Senate

What the?: Sen. David Vitter, the Louisiana Republican whose digits turned up in the D.C. madam’s little black book, has again emerged from the low-profile cocoon he lived in for months after the scandal in time to comment on Sotomayor’s nomination.

He gives the nominee credit, but wants to make sure she understands how the law, the Constitution and the game of baseball work.

As the first Hispanic nominee for the Supreme Court and only the third woman, Judge Sotomayor is certainly making hopeful and positive history. Now we must study her record and philosophy carefully to ensure that she understands the proper role of the judge as impartial umpire — not pitcher or catcher.

The Constitution is clear that the Supreme Court justices must interpret the law and not legislate from the bench. Judge Sotomayor made some comments at Duke University regarding the power of the courts to make policy that do give me pause, and that is something that I look forward to discussing with her.

As her nomination progress, I will be thoroughly reviewing her judicial record and I look forward to her nomination hearing, said Vitter.

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“I will review her qualifications on diaper changing. I will also investigate her personal life for any indiscretions. We don’t want a sinner in the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is not like the Senate.

”


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Italian spies to take stand at CIA trial

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Italian secret service officials were Wednesday to begin answering charges of colluding with their US counterparts in the 2003 kidnapping of an Egyptian imam from a Milan street.

The abduction was part of the CIA's covert "secret rendition" program under which terror suspects were transferred outside the judicial process to third countries known to practice torture.

The former head of Italian military intelligence, Nicolo Pollari, who was forced to quit over the affair, is among the seven Italian defendants in the trial, two of whom are accused only of aiding and abetting the abduction.

Successive Italian governments have declined to seek the extradition of the 26 US defendants in the case, 25 CIA agents and a US air force colonel, who are being tried in absentia.

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The CIA's torture untruths

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Little Johnny Cia tells more lies

The CIA once claimed it had briefed Senator Bob Graham, then chair of the Senate intelligence committee, four times on torture: twice in April 2002, and twice in September 2002. After Graham referred to his meticulous notes and showed there had been no briefing on three of those dates, the CIA admitted it had briefed him just once, in late September 2002. And when it finally got around to briefing Graham in late September 2002, he maintains, it told him nothing about waterboarding.

The CIA tried to claim it briefed Pelosi adequately, in her role as the senior Democrat on the House intelligence committee, on "description[s] of the particular torture techniques] that had been employed." But even Porter Goss' account reveals they weren't briefed that waterboarding had been used.

The CIA tried to claim that it briefed Senator Jay Rockefeller, the new ranking member of the Senate intelligence committee, on ""how the water board was used" in February 2003, until Rockefeller pointed out he wasn't at that briefing.

The CIA lists John Murtha, then the senior Democrat on the House appropriations subcommittee for defense, as attending a briefing on the "full detainee program, including the 13 [torture techniques]".

But it now admits Murtha didn't stay for the torture techniques part. And even though it lists Murtha's staffer, Paul Juola, as attending, the CIA later had to admit he wasn't at the briefing, either.

Four times, the CIA has claimed to have briefed Democrats, only to be proved wrong.

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Former Gitmo detainee describes abuse

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A former Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detainee says his seven years as an "enemy combatant" at the camp were a nightmare of abuse and an ugly mistake.

Lakhdar Boumediene, 43, was accepted by France as part of a U.S. effort to repatriate some of the Guantanamo detainees.

Boumediene, a former aid worker for the Red Crescent, told The New York Times in Paris Monday that he was never involved in terrorism in Bosnia, where he was swept up without charges in October 2001 on suspicions he and five other Algerians were plotting to blow up the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo.

He says that over his seven years there was interrogated more than 120 times, mostly about the activities of Muslims in Bosnia.

"At first I thought they were honest, and when I explained they would see I was innocent and would release me," Boumediene told the Times. "But after the first two years or so, I realized they were not straight. So I stopped cooperating."

He said that during one 16-day period in February 2003 he was interrogated day and night, as questioners lifted him roughly from the chair to which he was strapped, with the shackles digging into his flesh.

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Pentagon shells out for work undone

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The government now is going through the painful process of paying contractors for the work it won’t get.

The administration is following through on its campaign pledge to cut wasteful spending at the Pentagon. But the price is high.

After putting numerous programs on the chopping block, the government now is going through the painful process of paying contractors for the work it won’t get — what the Pentagon calls “termination costs.”

“When you cancel a program before the operational term of the contract is up, the government’s required to pay much of the costs of shutting down that are not recoverable,” said J. David Patterson, who was a Pentagon official under President George W. Bush.

He cited laying off workers, closing facilities, the cost of tools and materials that can’t be resold for use elsewhere and the cost of ending contracts with suppliers.

But breakups are never easy; contractors and their supporters pull out all the stops to fight back.

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Man sues Guinnes Book of Records over 'most lawsuits' claim

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A man who keeps suing people is suing the Guinness Book of World Records for saying that he's sued the most people ever.

Jonathan Lee Riches, who is currently incarcerated in the Federal Medical Center in Lexington, Kentucky, is thought to have filed over 4,000 lawsuits around the world against various people, entities, objects and concepts.

In a boldly ironic move, he has now filed a lawsuit against the Guinness Book of World Records, hoping to get an injunction against them naming him as the world's most litigious man in their 2010 edition.

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If Americans insist, our leaders will prosecute

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AS THE debate intensifies in Congress over who knew what about torture and when, U.S. citizens should not sit on the sidelines.

We should insist that the high-level civilians and generals who ordered, authorized, and put in place the torture in the past regime be prosecuted - just like the low-level uniformed soldiers who did their bidding in Iraq and Bagram who were court-martialed, served or are serving time, and were dishonorably discharged.

The only way that this prosecution will happen is if Americans insist that our political class come clean on their role in the torture and the organizers are prosecuted.

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A timeline of the George W. Bush presidency

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By Chimpplanet

March 2001: The Bush administration overturns a Clinton-era regulation reducing the amount of arsenic in drinking water.

April 2001: Bush signs a $1.65 trillion tax cut for large corporations and the wealthy.

August 2001: The "Osama Bin Laden determined to strike U.S." memo reaches the president's desk; He's clearing brush at his Crawford, Texas, ranch on a month-long vacation.

Sept. 11, 2001: President Bush reads "My Pet Goat" after being told of the attacks on the United States. Dick Cheney is already hiding underground since September 10.

October 2001; Bush signs Patriot Act. All US laws since 1776 don’t mean diddly now.

January 2002: "Gitmo" grand opening party. Dress of the day is orange jump suit.

May 2002: Bush issues executive order authorizing the National Security Agency to wiretap phones and read e-mails of U.S. citizens. Sexy phone calls and e-mails are routed to George to review.

June 2002: In a speech at West Point, Bush reveals his "Bush Doctrine" of preemptive war; behind the scenes, administrations officials plan the Iraq war. On TV they declare Saddam has WMDs, “nookoolar” material, is hosting Al-Qaeda conventions and can destroy the US in 40 minutes.

September 2002: One year after 9/11, Bush asks Congress for authorization of military force against Iraq. They grant it with no questions asked and no debate.

February 2003: Secretary of State Colin Powell states his case for war with Iraq at the UN. Most of the world, except the US Congress, feels it was a totally fabricated presentation. In the future Powell will admit it was.

March 19, 2003: - Bush declares war on Iraq because Saddam Husein is trying to destroy the US with WMDs. The first US military action is to protect the oil fields.

April 2003: Congress approves $79 million for the Iraq war; the next month, Bush signs $350 billion tax cut for the wealthiest of Americans. Those opposed to the war are labeled “Unpatriotic”.

May 1, 2003: President Bush declares mission accomplished in Iraq while aboard the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln. The Iraq war is over!

June 2003: FCC pushes for more media consolidation, allowing one company to own newspapers, TV and radio stations in the same city in order for the very wealthy to brainwash Americans.

July 2003: Cowboy Bush tells the Iraq insurgents to: "Bring 'em on." They do. Nearly 300 U.S. soldiers die over the next six months.

August 2003: Bush signs a budget that essentially kills the Teach for America program for inner-city schools. The dumbing down of Americans begins in earnest.

November 2003: U.S. soldiers' death toll in Iraq reaches 437. “Bring ‘em on!”

March 25, 2004: Bush cracks jokes about weapons of mass destruction at the 2004 Correspondent's Dinner.

“Those weapons of mass destruction must be somewhere," quipped the White House wagster. "Nope, no weapons over there Maybe under here."

April 2004: Abu Ghraib photos leaked. Military privates are blamed. The US does not torture…does not torture…does not torture…

July 2004: In his 2005 budget, Bush freezes the amount of Pell Grants for the third straight year. After his budget passes, average Pell Grant awards decrease for the first time in six years. Changes in eligibility cut thousands of students from grant rolls. We need more Walmart workers, not scientists, after all.

September 2004: The federal deficit reaches a record high. American troop deaths in Iraq now top 1,000. Also: Assault weapons ban lifted.

November 2004: Democrats, and former Naderites, gather at bars across the country to watch election results; hopes dashed again; Bush declares the close election a "mandate." Voting machines are not rigged…not rigged…not rigged…

July 2005: Bush appoints conservative John Roberts to Supreme Court; three months later, he appoints conservative Samuel Alito. The fix is in. Immunity for Bush crimes guaranteed.

August 2005: While President Bush is on vacation, Hurricane Katrina barrels down on New Orleans. Over the next two days, he travels the country for photo-ops (with John McCain and a country music star) before sending federal aid. Bush “is not racist” Laura declares.

April 2006: News reports reveal Bush has issued "signing statements" for more than 750 laws, stating he has the power to override the laws if they conflict with his interpretation of the Constitution. Bush is a constitutional scholar – NOT!

October 2006: Bush signs the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act, which allows the president to deploy U.S. military troops to police American streets in the event of a "national emergency." Martial law is now a reality. Bush has dictatorial powers.

May 2007: Bush signs a presidential directive that places him in control of all three branches of government in case of an extraordinary disaster. However, he has no power over the fourth branch: Dick Cheney.

June 2007: For a third time, Bush vetoes federal funding for stem cell research. God will cure cancer and other incurable diseases.

March 2008: Bush has taken 879 days of vacation in his eight years of office, approximately one-third of his presidency; five years into the Iraq War, over 4,000 U.S. troops dead; estimates of Iraqi civilian deaths range from 88,000 to over half a million. Mission accomplished. Bring ‘em on!

September 2008: Bush's approval ratings lowest in his presidency as he presides over the worst financial crisis since the Depression. Again, mission accomplished!

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Vitter versus the porn star?

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"I did not have sex with the DC Madam. She only changed my diapers."

I am not nor have I ever been a fan of David Vitter or the porn industry, but I must say I find a potential matchup between Stormy Daniels and Vitter extremely ironic and quite comical.

On one hand, take Vitter – a smug, self-righteous adulterer who by all accounts has likely used his seat(s) to take advantage of ahem, how shall I say this – “sins of the flesh”. I am, of course, referring to Vitter’s link to the “DC Madam” scandal at the time he was a member of the U. S. House of Representatives.

On the other hand, take Daniels – a saucy porn star who seems to pull no punches. She comes across as serious about the job and is actually going through the proper channels to test the waters to see just how successful she may be in a possible run for a Senate seat.

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Bush criticized by former 9/11 commission member

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"I remember calling Condi about bin Laden. I distinctly remember phoning her."

A former member of the 9/11 Commission criticizes former President George W. Bush in a new book for not responding to pre-attack intelligence on Osama bin Laden's intentions.

In "The Emperor's New Clothes: Exposing the Truth from Watergate to 9/11," Richard Ben-Veniste writes that CIA analysts told Bush that bin Laden was determined to strike inside the United States, "yet the president had done absolutely nothing to follow up."

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Backlash grows against Obama's preventive detention proposal

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The backlash against President Obama's extraordinary proposal for indefinite "preventive detention" -- already widespread in the immediate aftermath of his speech -- continues to grow.

On Friday, Sen. Russ Feingold sent a letter to President Obama which, while praising some aspects of his speech, vowed to hold hearings on Obama's detention proposal, and in the letter, Feingold rather emphatically highlighted the radical and dangerous aspects of Obama's proposal.

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FBI stops supposed ‘Temple Plot’ in New York City

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I WANT YOU TO REMAIN VERY AFRAID AND BELIEVE ANYTHING THE FBI SAYS. THEY NEVER LIE.

Last week, four men from Newburgh, New York were arrested in what the FBI says was a plot to bomb two synagogues in the Bronx and shoot down military planes with Stinger missiles.

What is most interesting about this is not that we were protected from a supposed terrorist attack, but that the whole “plot” was invented by an FBI informant:

The defendants, in their efforts to acquire weapons, dealt with an informant acting under law enforcement supervision, authorities said.

The FBI and other agencies monitored the men and provided an inactive missile and inert C-4 to the informant for the defendants, a federal complaint said.

In June 2008, the informant met Cromitie in Newburgh and Cromitie complained that his parents had lived in Afghanistan and he was upset about the war there and that many Muslim people were being killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan by U.S. military forces, officials said.

Did you catch the last sentence? He was upset that his fellow Muslims was being mercilessly bombed, and when tricked into retaliating, he and his three accomplices were arrested.

They did not “hate our liberties,” as nearly every media mouthpiece recites ad nauseum, they hated the fact the U.S. is brutally occupying and pummeling two-and-a-half Muslim countries.

This is just another example of how our global empire*, with over 800 bases in over 120 countries with soldiers ready to be deployed, creates a lot of backlash, and in the Middle Eastern world, this means terrorism.

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Nancy Pelosi dissembles to avoid taking responsibility

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To avoid so much as a hint of responsibility for her duties as a senior member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Pelosi has humiliated herself.

The CIA lied to her, she said on Thursday. She was not told about waterboarding in her briefings. Nor, for that matter, was she told directly about CIA interrogators using any enhanced interrogation techniques.

She was never briefed, she says, but was "told" about them by a staff member. As if there is a lick of difference between those split hairs.

And she raised no objections to what she learned because she was too busy trying to gain a majority for her party in Congress.

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JFK Assassination Theory #123,211

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Who killed JFK?

According to Hunt's confession, which was taken by his son, St. John ("Saint") Hunt, over the course of many personal and carefully planned father-son meetings, the following individuals were among the key participants:

Lyndon B. Johnson: LBJ, whose own career was assisted by JFK nemesis J. Edgar Hoover (FBI), gave the orders to a CIA-led hit team, and helped guide the Warren Commission/lone gunman cover-up.

Cord Meyer: CIA agent, architect of the Operation Mockingbird disinformation apparatus, and husband of Mary Meyer (who had an affair with JFK).

David Atlee Philips: CIA and Bay of Pigs veteran. Recruited William Harvey (CIA) and Cuban exile militant Antonio Veciana.

William Harvey: CIA and Bay of Pigs veteran. Connected to Mafia figures Santos Trafficante and Sam Giancana.

Antonio Veciana: Cuban exile, founder of CIA-backed Alpha 66.

Frank Sturgis: CIA operative, mercenary, Bay of Pigs veteran, and later Watergate figure.

David Morales: CIA hit man, Bay of Pigs veteran. Morales was also a figure involved with the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy.

Lucien Sarti: Corsican assassin and drug trafficker, possible "French gunman," Grassy Knoll (second) shooter.

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Dubya, Condi, Paul, Rummy and Colin: where are they now?

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Since leaving the White House and moving to Dallas, the former president has almost completely stepped out of public life. He has decided that, unlike Cheney, it is more dignified to maintain his silence about Barack Obama's presidency.

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Cheney is really attacking Bush

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“When (Dick) Cheney lambastes the change in security policy, he’s not really attacking the Obama administration. He’s attacking the Bush administration,” wrote columnist David Brooks.

Brooks noted how by 2005, the Bush administration had already backed away from or ended many of the policies that Cheney is criticizing President Obama about.

For example, the CIA had stopped waterboarding and had rejected its legal justification while Bush was president, and Bush officials were working on trying to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.

“The inauguration of Barack Obama has simply not marked a dramatic shift in the substance of American anti-terror policy,” Brooks said. “It has marked a shift in the public credibility of that policy.” Which is likely why Cheney is so worked up.

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Al-Qaeda Terrorists in U.S. Prisons? They’re Already Here

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If President Barack Obama is really intent on closing down Guantanamo Bay and overcoming fierce congressional opposition to housing these detainees on U.S. soil, he should repeat three simple words at every opportunity:

They’re already here.

Somehow, this important fact has been lost amid the shrieking both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have been doing over Obama’s proposal to move Guantánamo’s terrorist suspects to federal maximum-security prisons.

According to the Justice Department, 216 international terrorists are currently being held in federal prisons, as well as 139 domestic terrorists.

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US politician floats torturing Bush officials for charity

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A US politician invites Bush, Cheney and Rice to try waterboarding.

An American politician says former US President George W. Bush and two close allies should be subjected to waterboarding -- a harsh interrogation technique -- for charity.

In separate letters, Rhode Island Democratic Representative Rod Driver offered to pay 100 dollars for "every second" the former president, ex-Vice President Dick Cheney and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice undergo waterboarding, the Daily Telegraph reported.

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Oppositeland

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Once upon a time, left was left and right was right. Now the opposite is perfectly normal.

CLICK HERE TO SEE VIDEO)

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JFK Assassination Theory #125,368

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Former hitman James Files has claimed that he, Roselli and Charles "Chuckie" Nicoletti fired the fatal shots killing Kennedy at Dallas’ Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963. However, there is no proof to support this claim.

New York mob boss Bill Bonnano claimed in his autobiography that while he was imprisoned with Roselli, he spoke to him about the Kennedy assassination. Roselli allegedly told Bonanno that he had fired a shot from a storm drain located on Elm Street in Dallas.

Former CIA pilot "Tosh" Plumlee claims to have flown Roselli from Tampa to Dallas, arriving on the morning of November 22, 1963, on a mission to abort the assassination of President Kennedy.

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Big Pharma To Make Billions again, As U.S. Asks Firms to Make Swine Flu Vaccine

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By Chimpplanet

The federal government has asked three drug companies to make enough swine flu vaccine to immunize at least 20 million people in key positions in health care, national security and emergency services, officials said yesterday.

Further orders for potentially hundreds of millions of doses of vaccine are expected.

Although questions remain unanswered about the effectiveness of a swine flu vaccine, how many doses it will take to protect a person and who should get it, U.S. Health Department said, "we can't wait" for the answers before putting the manufacturing machinery in motion.

The situation has raised questions about the current system, because so far the H1N1 virus does not seem to be causing illness as severe as when the outbreak began in Mexico, or as severe as is caused by the avian flu officials have been watching for several years.

Here, again, we have a “created pandemic” as was the former avian flu scare a few years back.

Again, all of this “pandemic” will be forgotten as soon as the U.S. Government pays billions for vaccine it will never use, just like it did with Tamiflu.

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Cheney's new book: 'I'm right, you're wrong'

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Dick Cheney's reticence is gone. He's strongly speaking out on all kinds of matters these days, criticizing President Barack Obama's policies as much as he can.

Do I smell money in the air?

As expected, Cheney is now seeking to sign a lucrative book deal to tell all to the American people -- you know, the people he used to hide information from when he was vice president.

Cheney could get millions of dollars to give his side of what happened during the presidency of George Bush, especially regarding post-9/11 policies.

It could be fascinating reading (especially if Cheney spills the beans about who was in the meetings on energy policies and what they told Cheney early in the administration's time in D.C.).

So the book deal is one more reason Cheney has kept such a high profile in recent months. In part, he's trying to nudge up his dismal approval ratings so more people might be interested in buying his book.

Of course, no one can begrudge Cheney his opportunity to make money off his government service. It's the American way, after all.

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American Prisons Can’t Handle Guantanamo Super Duper Criminals

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Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Dick Cheney's example of the worst terrorist in the world

By Chimpplanet

The United States currently has the largest prison population in the world.

In these prisons we house some of the most dangerous humans in the world including mass murderers much more dangerous than the Gitmo prisoners, many of whom have not even committed crimes but were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The need for housing them in US facilities is so that the US government can prove in court that these individuals, many arrested when they were children, are really criminals.

Most of the remaining Gitmo prisoners have been held for over five years in a rickety prison hastily built in Cuba to handle them. They are guarded by “military” prison guards and not by “professional” guards that make their skills a lifetime job. In over six years, none have escaped from Gitmo.

Pelican Bay State Prison is a “supermax” facility in California that opened in 1989 that houses some of California's most dangerous inmates.

There are 3,301 prisoners and 99% of them are level 4 Maximum Security risks. They are the worst of the worst.

These inmates are held 22.5 hours per day in very plain cells and one hour alone in a small indoor exercise yard.

Yet, prisons like this cannot house the noncombatants from Guantanamo Bay?

As Jon Stewart of the Daily Show asked, ”What are they? F*cking warlocks?”

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Opinions:

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"I have opinions of my own -- strong opinions -- but I don't always agree with them." -George W. Bush

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Dick Cheney Defends Bush Terrorism, Murder And Torture

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Satire By Chimpplanet

Former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney said the Bush administration will be remembered for torturing and saving us from another 9/11 since Bush was not able to save us from the first 9/11, even though they knew it was being planned.

Americans didn’t hear much from Dick Cheney for eight years while he was Vice President, as he hid in some undisclosed underground location most of the time.

But now, that has changed dramatically. In the past few months, he's been making statements -- in printed commentary and on politically oriented radio and television programs -- on how he saved billions of lives by torturing Guantanamo detainees hundreds of times each until they told him nothing.

On May 21 he made his point in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative policy-research center in Washington, where his wife, Lynne, is a senior fellow, and Cheney himself serves on the board of trustees.

Cheney brought his audience back about 30 times to 9/11.

It was then, he said, that the Bush administration finally woke up, smelled the roses, and began to torture anyone they held in prison of the Islamic Faith.

"The key to any strategy is accurate torture, and skilled torturers to get that information in time to use it. In seeking to guard this nation against the threat of catastrophic violence and saving billions of lives, me and Georgie gave intelligence officers the torture tools and fake authority they needed to gain vital information," Cheney said.

"We didn’t invent that authority. Under threat of waterboarding, we forced our top lawyers like John Yoo and Jay Bybee to write memos making torture legal. And it was snuck through the Congress after 9/11, in a joint resolution (two congressmen saw it) authorizing all necessary torture and mayhem to protect the American people."

Torture and more torture

Cheney noted that no further attacks have followed 9/11 since they started torturing everyone of the Islamic religion. But as the memory of the horror of 9/11 faded, and word began to emerge of the CIA's use of waterboarding, genitalia electrocution and other torture, he said, some began to question the government's behavior.

Cheney said only three suspects -- men he called "of the highest intelligence value" -- were subjected to waterboarding hundreds of times each until they provided valuable information. They told us Osama bin Laden’s home address and cell phone number. They also told us who reallyn killed JFK, RFK and MLK and also where Jimmy Hoffa’s body was buried.

The rogue techniques is considered by many to be torture, but the vice president said it was "justified" under the circumstances.

"I was and remain a strong proponent of our torture program. The torture was used on hardened Islamic-fascist terrorists after other efforts, like vacations in Las Vegas, had failed. Yoo and Bybee made torture legal, essential and justified, and the right thing to do, like grandma baking apple pie and children playing baseball." Cheney said.

"The intelligence torture officers who questioned the terrorists can be proud of their torture, proud of the results, because they prevented the violent screaming death of millions, perhaps billions, or even trillions of people."

Cheney also questioned why Obama and members of the Democratic Party object to torture. He said the CIA briefed at least two out of over 500 leaders of Congress, including one Democrat, on the torture interrogation techniques they were using.

'Feigned Outrage'

Yet now, Cheney said, this same Democrat is reacting to the use of torture with what he called "feigned outrage based on a false narrative."

Cheney decided to delay the start of his speech until Obama's own address was over so he could better attack our president and defend his crimes and maybe change history.

In his own speech, Cheney criticized Obama for releasing the torture memos and letting the world know that Bush lied when he said, ‘We do not torture.’.

These documents gave Bush and Cheney specific permission to torture so they wouldn’t be put in prison under the Geneva Conventions after they left office.

But now that they've been made public, Cheney said, they should made be available in their un-redacted form so that Americans can know the value of the information extracted from the suspects (like LBJ and the CIA killing Kennedy) under torture -- and show the Bush administration in a better light.

"It'll do more than clarify the urgency and the rightness of torture and mayhem in the years after 9/11. It may help us to stay focused on dangers that have not gone away like Osama bin Laden and the ghost of Saddam Husein. Instead of idly debating whether Bush, Rumsfeld, Rice and I should be prosecuted and hanged, our attention will return to where it belongs: on baking apple pies and playing baseball" Cheney said.

"For all the partisan anger that still lingers, our administration will stand up well in history, like Hitler’s and Ghengis Khan‘s and Attila The Hun’s and Josef Stalin’s -- not despite our torture and murder after 9/11, but because of them."

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More PLANET OF THE CHIMPS here

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