chemey

Issue #44

Last Update March 2, 2006

National Taking Cheney's Advice by Gert Innsry November 20, 2005 Vice President Cheney has been a staunch protector of our government's right to use almost any tool to defeat terrorism and protect our national security. He has been especially vocal about preserving and expanding the right of the government to acquire needed information, regardless of pre-existing statutes, international treaties, or even the strictures of the U.S. Constitution. Of late, he has been much in the news attacking those who would restrict the Justice Department, FBI and intelligence agencies to legal measures in their pursuit of national security information. He has defended torture (though he is unwilling to call it that), “extraordinary rendition” (the outsourcing of torture to other countries), the secret CIA gulag revealed in recent news stories, and the more intrusive measures of the Patriot Act and other national security legislation. With a major breach of national security unresolved by participant's unwillingness to provide information to government investigators, it is time we took Dick Cheney at his word and apply the techniques he has defended so eloquently.

Exposing the identity of an undercover CIA agent is a federal crime, and one with national security implications. The prosecutor, Mr. Fitzgerald, has been all but stymied by the stonewalling of the journalists involved and their contacts. To resolve this issue, and uncover and capture the Osama bin Laden of this plot requires information difficult to get by normal means, but as Mr. Cheney and his colleagues have been telling us, 9/11 changed everything. We can't afford national security gaps of this nature to continue; it threatens our very survival as a nation. We must immediately transport Mr. Cheney, Mr. Libby, Mr. Novak, and key members of Mr. Rumsfeld's staff, including the Secretary himself, to a country less gingerly about interrogation, or to Guantanamo, where we have been assured that no rules apply, since, although it is not under the control of Cuba, it is not US territory either.

Perhaps sleep deprivation, uncomfortable postures, mild physical chastisement (though not anything that caused permanent injury or death, which would be a regrettable accident), cultural embarrassment (like posing Mr. Cheney in the nude), or religious harassment (flushing a New Testament down the toilet?) would make these people more forthcoming in their responses. As Mr. Cheney has held, the right of habeas corpus need not apply.

Once we have the information and can remove the threat to our secret agents, we can then turn our sights to even greater crimes and threats to our security, such as the death of over 2,000 of our citizens and injuries to 15,000 more. Surely we should be allowed to use any measures to discover who is responsible for such a monstrous act, and to prevent its repetition. Perhaps Mr. Bush and his cronies should consider being more generous with information before sterner measures are taken.