The Terror Presidency – Presents Cheney In All His Gory
New Book Details Cheney Lawyer’s Efforts to Expand Executive Power
By Dan Eggen and Peter Baker
Vice President Cheney‘s top lawyer pushed relentlessly to expand the powers of the executive branch and repeatedly derailed efforts to obtain congressional approval for aggressive anti-terrorism policies for fear that even a Republican majority might say no, according to a new book written by a former senior Justice Department official.
David S. Addington, who is now Cheney’s chief of staff, viewed both U.S. lawmakers and overseas allies with “hostility” and repeatedly opposed efforts by other administration lawyers to soften counterterrorism policies or seek outside support, according to Jack L. Goldsmith, who frequently clashed with Addington while serving as head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel in 2003 and 2004.
“We’re going to push and push and push until some larger force makes us stop,” Addington said at one point, according to Goldsmith.
Addington, who declined comment yesterday through Cheney’s office, is a central player in Goldsmith’s new book, “The Terror Presidency.” It provides an unusual glimpse of fierce internal dissent over the legal opinions behind some of the Bush administration’s most controversial tactics in detaining and interrogating terrorism suspects.
“As I absorbed the opinions, I concluded that some were deeply flawed: sloppily reasoned, overbroad, and incautious in asserting extraordinary constitutional authorities on behalf of the President,” Goldsmith writes, referring to Justice Department memoranda issued in the two years following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. “I was astonished, and immensely worried, to discover that some of our most important counterterrorism policies rested on severely damaged legal foundations.”
All dressed up in BLACK on WHITE for future generations to see. The Power and glory behind the most destructive administration since the indigenous population of this continent was massacred, is revealed. Contempt for law, constitution, civil liberties, human rights, and the Declaration of Independence is front and center for Cheney. The ‘Dark Force’ has been out of the headlines, this means more scary stuff is on the way …
September 5th, 2007 at 2:22 pm
He’s nowhere near done with his evil plans yet. And we all know where he’s bound and determined to go next…..it begins with an I and ends with ran. He is one scarey mofo. Even scarier is that there’s still people who support this administration and buy into their spin.
September 5th, 2007 at 8:44 pm
You are so right … Can’t we just start impeaching now? Why is he hiding? Notice the lack of headlines, he must be building new bunkers … guess whose supporters will be left behind to frnd for themselves.
September 6th, 2007 at 8:07 am
Cheney will have he world in a major war before he leaves Washington. I’m sure that even when Cheney is gone he will have his criminal hands involved in the mess he and Bush created