Dick Cheney - Soul Sold To Neocons

[Jamie Kelso]

I don't know who it is that's writing "George Washington's Blog", but this writer sure has the evil of Dick Cheney pegged. CAL

from George Washington's Blog - Wednesday, March 11, 2009
You Don't Know Dick

In February 2006, I chronicled some of then vice president Cheney's little-known shenanigans.

Given Pulitzer-prize winning investigative reporter Seymour Hersh's new revelation that the military ran an "Executive Assassination Ring" throughout the Bush years which reported directly to Cheney, I have reposted below - as context - my 2006 essay, called "All Roads Lead to Dick Cheney".

Most people know that Vice President Dick Cheney is former CEO of Halliburton, which makes billions of dollars a year from oil and primarily defense-related construction contracts (and that war and chaos increase Halliburton's profits, which in turn increase the value of Cheney's stock options). Most people also know that Cheney was secretary of Defense under George H. W. Bush.

Many people know that Cheney was a congressman from Wyoming. Some even know that he was one of the founders of the Project for a New American Century.

Well-read people know that the Project for a New American Century, in turn, called for a new American empire well before 9/11, and lamented that, without a "catastrophic and catalyzing event — like a new Pearl Harbor", transformation of America into an empire would be very slow.

But even well-informed people probably don't know that -- in the 70's -- Cheney was instrumental in generating fake intelligence exaggerating the Soviet threat in order to undermine coexistence between the U.S. and Soviet Union, which conveniently justified huge amounts of cold war spending. See also this article. This scheme foreshadowed Mr. Cheney's role in generating fake intelligence in Iraq by 30 years.

And did you know that Cheney has been perhaps the leading advocate for strengthening the powers of the White House to the point of monarchy for at least 20 years?

Have you heard that Cheney has been instrumental in creating and practicing Continuity of Gvernment measures for the last 20 years or so. These "COG" measures -- which were implemented on 9/11 -- could lead to the destruction of the Constitution, the virtual disbanding of Congress, and the loss of the American form of government.

Or that newly-released documents show that Cheney was involved in debates concerning illegal wiretaps 30 years ago?

Did you catch that the former director of the CIA accused Cheney of overseeing American torture policies ? Or that Colin Powell's former chief of staff stated that Dick Cheney is guilty of war crimes for his role in facilitating torture?

And, according to to the Pulitzer prize-winning reporter who uncovered the Iraq prison torture scandal and the massacre against Vietnamese civilians, Cheney is the main guy helping to fund groups which the U.S. claims are terrorists (see confirming articles here and here)

And guess who is the prime architect of efforts to bomb Iran? Yup, Mr. Cheney (see also this article).

To recap, Cheney's past includes:

• Oil

• Defense

• Faking intelligence and using scare tactics about enemies to justify a pre-planned military agenda

• Lobbying to give the president the powers of the king

• Calling for an American empire and lamenting the lack of a "new Pearl Harbor"

• Police state type wiretapping

• Selling war

• Promoting torture

• Funding Al-Qaeda

Did all of these aspects of Mr. Cheney's background converge in the Iraq debacle? Well, a top official at the State Department stated there was a secret "cabal" involving Cheney, and that Cheney and a handful of others had hijacked the country's foreign policy.

Did they converge on 9/11?

This last question is not merely academic: vice President Cheney was apparently in charge of ALL 5 of the war games which occurred on 9/11 and coordinated the government's "response" to the attacks. See this CNN article; and this essay.

And Cheney is the one who monitored flight 77 for many miles as it approached the Pentagon and -- when a military man asked "do the orders still stand?" -- Cheney responded affirmatively:

"The plane is 50 miles out. The plane is 30 miles out." And when it got down to, "The plane is 10 miles out," the young man also said to the vice president, "Do the orders still stand?" And the vice president turned and whipped his neck around and said, "Of course the orders still stand. Have you heard anything to the contrary?"

Watch the video for yourself (and see this essay).

Mr. Cheney's motive concerning 9/11 was strong. As a well-known writer said:

"For his entire career, he sought untrammeled power. The Bush presidency and 9/11 finally gave it to him . . ."

Postscript: For the sake of brevity, I have left out numerous additional acts committed by Mr. Cheney. For example, you may have heard that the Energy Task Force chaired by Cheney prior to 9/11 collected maps of Iraqi oil fields and potential suitors for that oil. But did you know that a secret document written by the National Security Council on February 3, 2001 directed the N.S.C. staff to cooperate fully with the Energy Task Force as it considered the “melding” of two seemingly unrelated areas of policy: “the review of operational policies towards rogue states,” such as Iraq, and “actions regarding the capture of new and existing oil and gas fields”? In other words, it is difficult to brush off Cheney's Energy Task Force's examination of Iraqi oil maps as a harmless comparison of American energy policy with known oil reserves because the N.S.C. explicitly linked the Task Force, oil, and regime change. Indeed, a former senior director for Russian, Ukrainian, and Eurasian affairs at the N.S.C. said “if this little group was discussing geostrategic plans for oil, it puts the issue of war in the context of the captains of the oil industry sitting down with Cheney and laying grand, global plans” (see also this essay).

And Cheney was largely responsible for generating fake intelligence about Iraq in order to justify the war.

And Cheney was probably responsible for outing CIA agent Valerie Plame.

And, according to former British Defense Secretary, Cheney has called the shots in the failed Iraq war.

Of course, Cheney has not acted alone in his actions. But he's been an important player in many different arenas and is, perhaps, the most widely-known figure who has had a hand in all of the above-described events. Cheney might not be the ultimate Mr. Big in these crimes, but he appears to have gotten his hands dirtier -- and to be closer to the true seat of power -- even than Mr. Bush.

In addition, while Cheney was not solely responsible for the above-listed actions, he hired many of the people who caused the mischief, such as the chief architect of the Iraq war - Paul Wolfowitz.


Original story

Join the WhiteNewsNow.com Blog discussion of this story here

[Jamie Kelso]

Did Cheney Order
The Barksdale B-52 With A Nuke?

No one has adequately explained how a U.S. Air Force B-52 with at least one nuke under its wing got "lost" on the runway at Barksdale A.F.B.

A rational person has to conclude that it is nearly impossible for a nuke to "accidentally" get moved out of what must be the most highly-guarded storage on Earth. A rational person has to conclude that it is nearly impossible for a nuke to get "accidentally" loaded under the wing of a B-52 that just "accidentally" is fueled up and crewed for an "accidental" mission.

A rational person has to conclude that it is nearly impossibel for this "accidentally" loaded B-52 to find itself "accidentally" wandering from Minot A.F.B. in North Dakota to the jump-off base for the Middle East, Barksdale A.F.B. near Shreveport, Louisiana.

On the other hand, it's VERY plausible that a red-blooded patriot in the U.S. Air Force who among the scores (hundreds?) of personnel that would have been aware that something was VERY wrong with this "accidental" B-52 flight would sound the alarm...and thus end this flight.

Here's an article that considers this possibility:

I was wondering about the errant flight of the nuclear armed B52. Something does not seem right about it. Searching around I found this. Crazy isn't it? I hope.

Conclusion: Exposing those Responsible for the B-52 Incident the canadian

Consequently, there is considerable circumstantial evidence to argue that the nuclear armed B-52 was part of an apparent covert operation, outside the regular chain of constitutional military command. The alleged authority responsible for this was Vice President Cheney. He very likely used the Secret Service to take charge of a contrived National Special Security Event involving a nuclear armed B-52 that would be flown from Minot AFB. The B-52 was directed to Barksdale Air Force base where it would have conducted a covert mission to the Middle East involving the detonation of one or more nuclear weapons most likely in or in the vicinity of Iran. This could either have occurred during a conventional military strike against Iran, or a False Flag operation in the Persian Gulf region.

Apparently, the leaking and discovery of the nuclear armed B-52 at Barksdale was not part of the script. According to a confidential source of Larry Johnson, a former counter-terrorism official from the State Department and CIA, the discovery of the nuclear armed B-52 was leaked. Johnson concludes: "Did someone at Barksdale try to indirectly warn the American people that the Bush Administration is staging nukes for Iran? I don't know, but it is a question worth asking." LINK.

While the general public is likely to be given a watered down declassified report by the Air Force over the B-52 incident on September 14, the real investigation will reveal that it was part of a covert operation that intended to bypass the regular chain of command in using nuclear weapons in the Middle East. This will likely result in a furious backlash by key figures in the regular military chain of Command such as Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, and the Commander of Central Command, Admiral William Fallon, who have direct responsibility for the conduct of military operations in the Middle East. The US. Air Force, the Secretary of Defense and Commander of Central Command, is now aware of what was likely going to be the true use of the B-52 and the responsibility of the Office of the Vice President.

It is very likely that the exposure of the B-52 incident will lead to an indefinite hold on plans to attack Iran given uncertainty whether other nuclear weapons have been covertly positioned for use in the Middle East. Significantly, public officials briefed about the true circumstances of the B-52 incident will almost certainly place enormous pressure on Vice President Cheney to immediately resign if it is found that he played the role identified above. It is therefore anticipated that in a very short time, the public will learn that Cheney has resigned for health resigns.

The forthcoming September 14 U.S. Air Force report will likely describe the B-52 incident as an "error" and an "isolated incident" as foreshadowed in the September 6 Press Statement. This will create some difficulty in exposing the actual role played by Cheney and any other government figures that supported him. There will be a need for continued public awareness of the true events behind the B-52 incident in order to expose the actual role of Mr. Cheney. Only in that way can Cheney be held accountable for his actions, and other government figures that supported his neo-conservative agenda be exposed. Regardless of whether Cheney's role as the prime architect of the B-52 incident is exposed to the public, the official backlash against his covert operation should force his resignation. In either case, a very dangerous public official would be removed from a powerful position of influence. More importantly, the world has been spared a devastating nuclear war by courageous American airmen who revealed the true contents of an otherwise routine B-52 landing at Barksdale, AFB headed for a covert nuclear mission to the Middle East.
The Elephant Bar: Left Wing Canadian Paper Says Cheney Directed B52 to Bomb Iran

[Jamie Kelso]

Cheney Ran Rogue CIA Assassination Unit

Hersh: 'Executive assassination ring' reported directly to Cheney Muriel Kane
Published: Wednesday March 11, 2009


Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh dropped a bombshell on Tuesday when he told an audience at the University of Minnesota that the military was running an "executive assassination ring" throughout the Bush years which reported directly to former Vice President Dick Cheney.

The remark came out seemingly inadvertently when Hersh was asked by the moderator of a public discussion of "America's Constitutional Crisis" whether abuses of executive power, like those which occurred under Richard Nixon, continue to this day.

Hersh replied, "After 9/11, I haven’t written about this yet, but the Central Intelligence Agency was very deeply involved in domestic activities against people they thought to be enemies of the state. Without any legal authority for it. They haven’t been called on it yet."

Hersh then went on to describe a second area of extra-legal operations: the Joint Special Operations Command. "It is a special wing of our special operations community that is set up independently," he explained. "They do not report to anybody, except in the Bush-Cheney days, they reported directly to the Cheney office. ... Congress has no oversight of it."

"It’s an executive assassination ring essentially, and it’s been going on and on and on," Hersh stated. "Under President Bush’s authority, they’ve been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving. That’s been going on, in the name of all of us."

Hersh told MinnPost.com blogger Eric Black in an email exchange after the event that the subject was "not something I wanted to dwell about in public." He is looking into it for a book, but he believes it may be a year or two before he has enough evidence "for even the most skeptical."

Stories have been coming out about covert Pentagon assassination squads for the last several years. In 2003, Hersh himself reported on Task Force 121, which operated chiefly out of the Joint Special Operations Command. Others stories spoke of a proposed Proactive, Preemptive Operations Group.

As Hersh noted in Minnesota, the New York Times on Monday described the Joint Special Operations Command as overseeing the secret commando units in Afghanistan whose missions were temporarily ordered halted last month because of growing concerns over excessive civilian deaths.

However, it appears that Hersh is now on the trail of some fresh revelation about these squads and their connection to Vice-President Cheney that goes well beyond anything that has previously been reported.
The Raw Story | Hersh: 'Executive assassination ring' reported directly to Cheney