Head of CIA: It’s Almost as if Cheney is Wishing that this Country would be Attacked

WASHINGTON D.C. – In an interview for the June 22nd issue of “The New Yorker”, Leon Panetta head of the C.I.A, says that former Vice-President Dick Cheney is almost hoping for a second attack on the United States as a means to buttress the former Vice President’s criticism of the Obama Administration’s foreign policy and as justification for the Bush Administration’s use of torture.¹

In a speech before the American Enterprise Institute² on May 21 of this year, former Vice-President Cheney labeled the Obama Administration’s rhetoric on completely ruling out the use of torture as “unwise in the extreme”. Thus, his language at the AEI and Sunday morning talk show circuit led Director Panetta to state during the interview with the New Yorker:

“It’s almost, a little bit, gallows politics. When you read behind it, it’s almost as if he’s wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point.”

Leon Panetta
Director
Central Intelligence Agency

While at first blush, readers may attempt to dismiss Director Panetta’s statement as hyperbole; intellectuals, students of history, and liberty activists may feel a slight tinge of déjà vu. That feeling most likely stems given former Vice-President Cheney’s involvement along with former Deputy Secretary of Defense, Paul Wolfowitz, former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, convicted former Chief of Staff for the Vice-President, Lewis “Scooter” Libby et al, with the now defunct “Project for a New American Century (PNAC). In September of 2000, PNAC releases a document entitled, “REBUILDING AMERICA’S DEFENSES-Strategy, Forces and Resources For a New Century”⁵. More specifically, in SECTION V entitled, “Creating Tomorrow’s Dominant Force”, the group wrote:

“Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event–like a new Pearl Harbor“

REBUILDING AMERICA’S DEFENSES
SECTION V
Page 51

Mr. Panetta also went on to say during the interview that he supported an independent investigation of prisoner abuse at Guantanamo Bay during the Bush Administration. However, the chances for an independent investigation became moot after President Obama declined to hold any such investigation, which was subsequently explained by Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, as the President’s desire to look forward and not become bogged down in what could be perceived as a political witch hunt of the opposition.

However, both supporters of the administration, such as political commentator, Rachel Maddow³ and those seeking a non-interventionist foreign policy such as Representative Ron Paul of Texas point to signs, that the new administration’s foreign policy shares some core principles with that of his predecessor⁴. More precisely, both have pointed to the Obama’s Administration’s desire to construct a new legal framework of “Preventative Detention” as well as the expansion of the war in Afghanistan coupled with bleed over in to Pakistan in support of the notion that this is far from the “Change” promised on the campaign trail.

Source(s): ¹The New Yorker “The Secret History” by: Jane Mayer, issue stand date: June 22nd, 2009 • ² Fox News “American Enterprise Institute Transcript of speech by Dick Cheney” • ³ MSNBC “The Rachel Maddow Show” originally aired May 21sy, 2009 •⁴MinnesotaChris “Ron Paul Opposes Foreign Relations Authorization Act on House Floor” report filed Jun 6, 2009 • ⁵ Project for a New American Century “REBUILDING AMERICA’S DEFENSES-Strategy, Forces and Resources For a New Century”, published September 2000