What does it take, Truthseekers, to bring down Dick Cheney? How many decades of criminal activity; how much war profiteering with Halliburton's no-bid contracts; how many supersecret energy "task forces" to commandeer oil resources from other countries (remember, he went to the Supreme Court to keep secret the advisers to his task force on energy, and won); how much of this sleaze and corruption does it take to have enough evidence to charge him with a crime? Does organizing private death squads to remove unwanted foreign opponents mean nothing?
The list of atrocities and abuses of power was endless before this weekend's breaking news showing a link between Cheney and concealment of another super-secret CIA "counterterrorism" project. What does it take?
The New York Times reported this on Saturday:
"The Central Intelligence Agency withheld information about a secret counterterrorism program from Congress for eight years on direct orders from former Vice President Dick Cheney, the agency's director, Leon E. Panetta, has told the Senate and House intelligence committees, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said Saturday.
The report that Mr. Cheney was behind the decision to conceal the still-unidentified program from Congress deepened the mystery surrounding it, suggesting that the Bush administration had put a high priority on the program and its secrecy. Mr. Panetta, who ended the program when he first learned of its existence from subordinates on June 23, briefed the two intelligence committees about it in separate closed sessions the next day.
Efforts to reach Mr. Cheney through relatives and associates were unsuccessful."
Efforts were unsuccessful. Did anyone check the sacred box of dirt under the cellar at his Wyoming ranch? Or the suspended-animation chamber installed at the local Sears battery store?
But seriously, how much evidence do the Democrats in Congress or Attorney General Eric Holder need to open an official investigation? I just served on a jury where we convicted a man of murdering and dismembering his roommate on less direct, physical evidence than they have on Cheney. Put me or one of my fellow jurors on the case, or the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) and State District Attorney's office -- we'll take it from there.
The Times article continues :
The disclosure about Mr. Cheney's role in the unidentified C.I.A. program comes a day after an inspector general's report underscored the central role of the former vice president's office in restricting to a small circle of officials knowledge of the National Security Agency's program of eavesdropping without warrants, a degree of secrecy that the report concluded had hurt the effectiveness of the counterterrorism surveillance effort.
An intelligence agency spokesman, Paul Gimigliano, declined on Saturday to comment on the report of Mr. Cheney's role.
Oh, yeah, I had forgotten about that abuse of our constitutional rights that Cheney ordered with the help of Bush's leetle tejano Alberto Gonzales, and their sick-bed attempted coercion of a semi-conscious Ashcroft in his hospital room . These are such honest, upstanding, transparent rule-of-law kinda guys, right? They make "The Sopranos" look like choir boys.
So what does it take, Truthseekers? Do we need to find a document signed by the Dark Lord himself admitting his many murderous crimes? Or does he get away with it like so many other power mad Republicans?
