Lanny Davis: Indict Cheney

Newsmax ^ | May 17, 2009 | Lanny Davis

[Captain Jack Aubrey]

I have written many times in this space that I oppose any criminal prosecution of prior-administration officials on torture or other issues relating to the Iraq War and the war on terrorism, especially those CIA interrogators who relied in good faith on the instructions of policymakers and the legal opinions issued by Justice Department senior officials. I have agreed with President Obama on the need to look forward, not backward. But I have changed my mind about the need to indict former Vice President Dick Cheney for complicity in illegal torture. [Editor’s Note: Read Lanny J. Davis' columns in The Washington Times. Go here now.] His insistence on putting himself on multiple TV programs and conservative radio talk shows, not only defending torture but offering the defense that it worked, has changed my mind. Not only that -- he went on to attack Mr. Obama as weakening the United States in the war on terrorism because Mr. Obama immediately announced that torture would no longer be allowed. Dem's fighting words. They are also, in my view, reckless and irresponsible. They seem to be laying down a marker that in case, God forbid, there is a terrorist attack, Mr. Cheney can be the first to blame it on Mr. Obama's policies and say, "I told you so." Even more, they seem to be an in-your-face dare by Mr. Cheney to the U.S. criminal justice system: "I am Dick Cheney, I approved violations of the law in the name of the war on terror, and what are you going to do about it?"

[cartervt2k]

That’s right - silence your president’s critics by threat. Too bad for him, Cheney doesn’t give a damn.

[Condor51]

It (water boarding) has been used as torture from the Inquisition to Nazi Germany, and was prosecuted as a war crime after World War II.

Lanny, stop it. Yer killin' me.

During the Inquisition they used much tougher methods to make one convert. And like the Gestapo, SD, etc, would waste time water boarding when they had 'juicer' methods available to make one talk.

ps: Hey Lanny our own troops are water boarded during SERE training. Should all those instructors be indicted too? Oh, almost forgot. In our US Army Special Forces (Green Berets for those in Rio Linda), when you go through SCUBA School (voluntary). At one point you "think" you're drowning too. So how about indicting those instructors?

[b4its2late]

Lanny Davis is a Putz.

[TheLawyerFormerlyKnownAsAl]

Lanny Davis is scum. It turns my stomach to see Hannity get all mushy and buddy buddy with the guy on his radio and television shows.

Right on. Why he gives a forum to him I do not know. Same goes for Beckel (sp.). When they come on, my radio goes off.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Related threads:

The hidden hand of Dick Cheney (He has them quaking in their Birckenstocks!)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2250231/posts

CONFIRMED: Interrogation techniques DID aid in our fight against Al Qaeda
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2251226/posts

[MortMan]

Typical leftocrat. They want to indict Cheney for exercising his first amendment rights.

There doesn’t appear to be a legal basis for this desire, just the need to shut the truth up.

What happened to America?

[Balding_Eagle]

But I have changed my mind about the need to indict former Vice President Dick Cheney for complicity in illegal torture............... His insistence on putting himself on multiple TV programs and conservative radio talk shows, not only defending torture but offering the defense that it worked, has changed my mind.

LOL! How juvenile can you get? This is the kind of stuff grade schoolers say.

[InterceptPoint]

Lanny Davis is simply telling Cheney to either shut up or be indicted. He is hurting the Obama Administration “Big Time” and they want him shut down. It’s not going to happen. Cheney is out there on the talking circuit defending himself and others against the silly charge that the use of waterboarding was/is illegal. Furthermore, he will not be indicted because there is no case against him that wouldn’t have to be brought against Bush, Pelosi, Rockefeller, Goss and a host of Congress Critters all of whom knew and, in effect, approved of the waterboarding of captured terrorists.

[Katdaddy]

Amen. I also can’t stand Hannity’s fake laugh. I change the channel on my Sirius radio when that happens.

[Ann Archy]

Why does NEWSMAX give a forum to this LOON????

[PubliusMM]

Uh, yep...now that 0bama has effectively castrated the US intelligence service interrogation process, he SHOULD be blamed if the US is attacked, again.

Bring it, Lanny...

[truthandlife]

An intimidation tactic by the LEFT. Cheney needs to continue to speak up.

I would love for them to try to indict Cheney. Talk about an uprising in the GOP.

[Eagle Eye]

Lanny Davis doesn’t even believe his own words but knows who butters his bread.

[Inwoodian]

Funny, I don’t recall Lanny complaining about the uber-schmuck, Carter, appearing all over TV calling President Bush a liar and a terrorist. These twerps can’t handle the truth from straight talkers like Dick Cheney.

[JimRed]

There is not an ounce worth of difference between todays Socialist Democrats and the National Socialists of Germany.

Minor point of disagreement: the killings have not started (yet). Perhaps we need to be preemptive!

[madinmadtown]

Do jerks become democrats or do democrats become jerks? Lanny is the model for the Rat jerk. Enough said about the sleaze for brains democratic prototype.

[matt1234]

Also, the US Constitution confer NO executive authority to the VP, except when serving as "Acting President." This never happened during GW Bush's tenure. So, as VP, Cheney never had the authority to authorize anything. How can he be culpable?

It seems the leftists are hell bent on getting their Stalinist show trials, one way or the other.

[andy58-in-nh]

This, from the same man who once enlightened America about the malleability of words like "is", and did so in defense of a client whose weakening of our intelligence capabilities led directly to the events of 9/11.

I can certainly understand why Democrats would wish to avoid any discussion of their culpability for the atrocities committed against Americans. So, they blame those who first warned us of the threat and who then endeavored to avoid further such horrors by extracting intelligence from the terrorists who might commit them.

For Democrat operatives like Lanny Davis, no sphere of human life is uncolored by politics and so every motivation of their adversaries is instantly suspect. Moreover, many Democrats are no longer satisfied to merely dismiss or ridicule; policy differences must now be criminalized whenever possible. In this way, the rule of law is subordinated to the rule of lawyers, in pursuit not of justice but of partisan advantage.

[Piquaboy]

STFUL

[roses of sharon]

Commie propaganda.