Meet The War Criminal: Dick Cheney

Richard Bruce Cheney admitted unapologetically to being a war criminal in an ABC News interview yesterday. Read it and you should weep.

ABC: Did you authorize the tactics that were used against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed?
CHENEY: I was aware of the program, certainly, and involved in helping get the process cleared, as the agency, in effect, came in and wanted to know what they could and couldn't do. And they talked to me, as well as others, to explain what they wanted to do. And I supported it.
ABC: In hindsight, do you think any of those tactics that were used against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and others went too far?
CHENEY: I don't.
ABC: And on KSM, one of those tactics, of course, widely reported was waterboarding. And that seems to be a tactic we no longer use. Even that you think was appropriate?
CHENEY: I do.

*The first statement is an absolute lie, proven by the Senate report.

The decision to torture individuals was made by Bush and Cheney before the CIA ever asked for legal cover for the torture they had been ordered to commit. The torture and abuse was planned before even the January 2002 presidential memo that authorized torture:

In December 2001, more than a month before the President signed his memorandum, the Department of Defense (DoD) General Counsel’s Office had already solicited information on detainee “exploitation” from the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency (JPRA), an agency whose expertise was in training American personnel to withstand interrogation techniques considered illegal under the Geneva Conventions

Creating and monitoring a torture program is unambiguously a war crime. Torture is a bullshit abuse dating back at least to the psychotic Catholics of the Spanish Inquisition. It is characteristic of the worst people in the world. Nice company Dick. I don't care if you hate the fuck out of every Arab on the face of the planet you can't have it both ways. The law is not in question. Islamo-fascists may be fuckheads of the first order but this is America and we're only as good as the rule of law outlined in our Constitution.

Dick Cheney is brazenly admitting he is a war criminal. It's an open and shut case. He seems unworried yet for an elected official of the US government to disrespect both the Flag and the Constitution of the United States is beyond the pale. Remember now we have prosecuted others for torturing our soldiers and the British put people to death for this very behavior. So the only question remaining is will Americans aid and abet Cheney's admitted crime. It's is hard to say which is sadder, that some chicken hawk politico would blatantly disregard the preeminent legal document of the world or that a bunch a hapless Americans juiced on American Idol and TMZ don't care. The opiate of the masses indeed. Fuck the Taliban.

And if you think the ends justifies the means you might wanna double check the ends as outlined in the article Reckoning Tortured Reasoning by David Rose in Vanity Fair.


UPDATE - 1/14/08
Bush Official Admits Torture