Free Republic

Colin CampbellSeptember 7, 2015 The White House is firing back at former Vice President Dick Cheney. Cheney has long been a fierce critic of President Barack Obama. But in recent days, he has been publicly savaging the administration's Iran nuclear deal with new intensity while promoting his new book. In a seemingly unusual reaction, the White House on Tuesday used its official social-media accounts to promote a video blasting Cheney for his comments. The video stressed that Cheney was a leading proponent of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. It also noted that the former vice president continued to...

Trump part starts @ 7:12 ---------- Wallace: Mr Vice President, what do you think of Donald Trump? Cheney: I have,uh, don't know the man, I haven't met him personally.  I have refrained from judging any of our candidates -positively or negatively- because we've been concerned primarily about the book, and getting the whole question of national security front-and-center in the debate this year. At some point we may endorse, but I haven't yet. Wallace: Do you think he's -obviously... I know you, you're an avid news follower, reader, watcher- do you think he's... prepared, fit to be president? Cheney: Ah, I'm not going to check any...

Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday that the European refugee crisis is “a direct consequence” of President Obama’s failed foreign policy and that he does not support the Iran nuclear deal. Cheney, who was vice president in the George W. Bush administration, said Obama has helped to “create a huge vacuum” in Iraq for terror groups like the Islamic State to flourish and kill by failing to secure an agreement with Iraqi leaders to keep U.S. troops in the country after the war. “That contributed directly to the refugee crisis,” Cheney told “Fox News Sunday.” “It’s a crisis of...

The apple does not fall far from the libertarian tree. The one thing that is the biggest negative in ever considering Rand Paul as PotUS is that he shares the same isolationist/non-interventionist scrawny foreign policy beliefs as his father. Is Rand purposely trying to alienate a segment of the Republican base before primaries by commenting on Dick Cheney's foreign policy in wake of the release of a new book: Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) criticized former Vice President Dick Cheney on Thursday, calling nearly all of his foreign policy decisions spanning the last three decades a "disaster for this country." "I...

Deal ‘will never be forgotten in the Middle East’ Dick Cheney called the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran a “train wreck” that will never be forgotten and characterized it as a betrayal of U.S. allies in the Middle East during an interview with the Washington Free Beacon on Tuesday. “I cannot explain [President Obama’s] motives other than he thinks this is going to be a great legacy for his presidency,” said Cheney. “I think it’s going to be a train wreck, and he’s not going to want to claim it down the road. He’ll have to find a way...

In a new book, former Vice President Dick Cheney and daughter Liz Cheney argue that President Obama "has dangerously surrendered [the] nation's global leadership." Before Obama became president, Republican and Democrat presidents understood and delivered on a "75-year, largely bipartisan tradition of ensuring America's pre-eminence and strength," the two write in their book, "Exceptional: Why the World Needs a Powerful America." But, "despite the explosive spread of terrorist ideology and organizations, the establishment of an Islamic State caliphate in the heart of the Middle East, the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and increasing threats from Iran, China, North Korea and Russia,...

Former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter Liz are blasting the nuclear deal between Iran and the six world powers, likening it to the Munich agreement signed in and which paved the way to World War II. The harsh criticism of the deal came in a joint op-ed the two wrote for The Wall Street Journal on Friday. The two write that “despite the explosive spread of terrorist ideology and organizations, the establishment of an Islamic State caliphate in the heart of the Middle East, the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and increasing threats from Iran, China, North Korea...

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Friday that those who oppose the Iran nuclear agreement, like former Vice President Dick Cheney and presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, are "pro-war" and are some of the same people who got the U.S. into a war with Iraq in 2003. "There's no doubt that we've seen forceful advocacy to kill this deal," Earnest said. "It's the same forceful advocacy we've seen in the run up to the Iraq war in 2003. In fact it's many of the same people making the same arguments." Cheney is scheduled to appear Sept. 8 at...

Having spent more than 30 years in the US Marine Corps, I know what constitutes a national security threat. Climate change, caused in large part by the carbon pollution we dump into our air, presents risks to the safety of both our nation and our world at large. The threats of climate change include extreme weather, rising sea levels, reduced military capacity, and conditions that can enable worldwide violence and perpetuate terrorism. To address this challenge, we’ll need to both prepare for the effects of climate change and reduce the pollution that is causing it. As the Environmental Protection Agency...

In never-before-released photographs taken on Sept. 11, 2001, the shock, horror and gravity of the terrorist attacks can be read on the faces of President George Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, their wives Laura and Lynne, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, CIA Director George Tenet and other senior Bush and Cheney staffers. The photos were released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Colette Neirouz Hanna, coordinating producer for the Kirk Documentary Group, which covered the Bush administration in many films for FRONTLINE, including Bush’s War, Cheney’s Law and The Dark Side. The photographs, which were...

Former Vice President Dick Cheney passionately denounced the Iran nuclear deal in a Fox News interview with Sean Hannity on Tuesday night. "You asked the key question, Sean. And that is: What the hell is the president thinking of when he thinks this is a great deal? And I frankly simply do not understand. I haven't met anyone who can explain it to me," he said.

There’s been a lot of discussion about same sex marriage over the last few months – particularly from the candidates running for the GOP nomination. Sometimes it seems as if they are in a contest to see who can be the most stalwart defender of “traditional marriage” – who can most effectively stoke the unfounded fears of the far right. When talking about same sex marriage, these candidates regularly throw around phrases like religious freedom and religious liberty, warn that marriage equality will lead to the criminalization of Christianity or the downfall of the American family, and fret that our...

Former CIA Deputy Director Mike Morrell has been making his rounds in the media, promoting his new book. Earlier this week, he appeared on Hardball with Chris Matthews; and the Iraq war critics have been salivating over this "Aha! Gotcha!" moment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqOat2wDitQ Host Chris Matthews asked Morell about a statement Cheney made in 2003: "We know he [Saddam Hussein] has been absolutely devoted to trying to acquire nuclear weapons. And we believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons." Here's the conversation that followed: MATTHEWS: Was that true? MORELL: We were saying— MATTHEWS: Can you answer that question? Was that...

LAWRENCE B. WILKERSON served as chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell from 2002 to 2005. IN PRESIDENT BUSH'S first term, some of the most important decisions about U.S. national security — including vital decisions about postwar Iraq — were made by a secretive, little-known cabal. It was made up of a very small group of people led by Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. When I first discussed this group in a speech last week at the New American Foundation in Washington, my comments caused a significant stir because I had been chief...

In an appearance on “The Hugh Hewitt Show” Tuesday night, former Vice President Dick Cheney said that President Obama’s actions on the world stage exemplify a president who wants “to take America down.” Cheney also touched on Obama’s comments on Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, telling Hewitt that Obama is the only post-World War II president to believe that America doesn’t need “to play a leading role in the world.” The former vice president made the appearance following the announcement of a new book on American foreign policy, co-authored by himself and daughter Liz Cheney, will be released in September.

Here’s just a sample from the transcript: HH: Is he naïve, Mr. Vice President? Or does he have a far-reaching vision that only he entertains of a realigned Middle East that somehow it all works out in the end? DC: I don’t know, Hugh. I vacillate between the various theories I’ve heard, but you know, if you had somebody as president who wanted to take America down, who wanted to fundamentally weaken our position in the world and reduce our capacity to influence events, turn our back on our allies and encourage our adversaries, it would look exactly like what...

ASPEN — A man who left bomb threats and homemade bombs around Aspen on New Year's Eve shot and killed himself in his car a few hours after his threats cleared much of the resort town, Aspen Police said. Assistant Aspen Police Chief Bill Linn said James Chester Blanning, 72, walked into two Aspen banks Wednesday afternoon and left packages wrapped in holiday paper along with notes saying the boxes contained bombs. The notes threatened "mass death" and demanded $60,000 cash, along with criticisms of President George Bush, Linn said.

Judith Miller, the former New York Times reporter, has blown a big hole in the case against Lewis “Scooter” Libby, convicted of lying to avoid blame for outing a CIA agent. Miller was a key witness in Libby’s trial, but in her new book she has repudiated her testimony. Libby was “railroaded in his conviction” by Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald, she said in an interview on Fox News yesterday. In her book, The Story: A Reporter’s Journey, she writes that Fitzgerald cajoled her into testifying in 2007 that Libby had told her Valerie Plame, the wife of a critic...

The White House has been examining a proposal by James Baker to launch a Middle East peace effort without Israel. The peace effort would begin with a U.S.-organized conference, dubbed Madrid-2, and contain such U.S. adversaries as Iran and Syria. Officials said Madrid-2 would be promoted as a forum to discuss Iraq's future, but actually focus on Arab demands for Israel to withdraw from territories captured in the 1967 war. They said Israel would not be invited to the conference. “As Baker sees this, the conference would provide a unique opportunity for the United States to strike a deal without...

When the London Telegraph reported last week that newly uncovered documents link 9/11 ringleader Mohamed Atta to Iraq-based Palestinian terrorist Abu Nidal, it wasn't the first time one of the 9/11 hijackers had been reported to have such ties. In a development that adds evidence to the case that Iraq played a direct role in the worst attack ever on the U.S., reports show that Ziad Jarrah - who piloted the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers had discovered they were on a suicide mission - also had ties to Nidal. Like Atta, Jarrah traveled to Hamburg, Germany, where...