Roland S. Martin
CNN
Mr. President, please take my advice: never listen to the nutty advice of former Vice President Dick Cheney.
Trust me, he gave enough dumb advice to President George W. Bush during the last eight years that it's best that he just keep quiet on anything dealing with Iraq and Afghanistan.
Instead of recognizing that his constant pushing for war in Iraq, which had nothing to do with the tragic events on 9/11, has put American in a tenuous position with the rest of the world, including our allies, Dick "I Took Five Deferments So I Wouldn't Have to Serve in Vietnam" Cheney wants to send more of our men and women into Afghanistan with absolutely no clue as to what the game plan is.
Bobby Ghosh
TIME
Former Vice President Dick Cheney and other members of the Bush Administration might have had a tense weekend. After months of delay and controversy, the Obama Administration is expected on Monday to declassify the 2004 CIA inspector general's report into the agency's interrogation program. Cheney, the most prominent of several Bush-era officials who have vociferously defended the program, faces either vindication or more vilification.
Over the past two days news reports have quoted unnamed officials as saying the IG's findings include instances where CIA interrogators used power drills and even a gun to threaten a detainee; on another occasion, as first reported by Newsweek, they allegedly staged a mock execution. If true, these tactics would go well beyond the coercive techniques permitted by the Bush Administration's legal counsel.
Julian E. Zelizer
Special to CNN
In response to the growing pressure for an investigation into potential abuses by the CIA and former Bush administration officials, Republican Sen. John Cornyn warned: "This is high-risk stuff. Because if we chill the ability or the willingness of our intelligence operatives and others to get information that's necessary to protect America, there could be disastrous consequences."
But Cornyn has it wrong. What chills our national security operations is not the discovery of wrongdoing. Rather, what chills our national security operations is tolerating programs that undermine the credibility of our institutions. When Americans are asked to go to war or are warned of dangerous threats, they must be able to believe the people they are hearing from.
Following the most recent revelations about the CIA, we have reached a tipping point where it is becoming impossible to continue dismissing these allegations as part of the past.
The House Intelligence Committee has announced that it will begin an investigation into the CIA's plans for a covert assassination program to target al Qaeda operatives, including allegations that then-Vice President Dick Cheney instructed the agency to hide the operation from Congress.
Robert Baer
TIME
On June 24, CIA Director Leon Panetta made a confession. For the past eight years, the agency has been running a top-secret unit to assassinate or grab members of al-Qaeda. The program was deliberately kept from Congress — supposedly on former Vice President Dick Cheney's orders — and Panetta stopped it as soon as he heard about it.
Sounds alarming. But like many of these stories, there's less to it than meets the eye. The unit conducted no assassinations or grabs. A former CIA officer involved in the program told me that no targets were picked, no weapons issued and no one sent overseas to carry out anything.
Lanny Davis
The Washington Times
I began having second thoughts about last week's column urging the indictment of former Vice President Dick Cheney for approving the use of waterboarding and other forms of illegal torture, shortly after it was published and posted last Monday morning – days before the Obama-Cheney back-to-back speeches Thursday.
Just to repeat briefly why I wrote that Mr. Cheney should be indicted:
It cannot seriously be disputed that waterboarding is "torture," as that word was defined by Congress in the 1994 federal criminal prohibition against torture: conduct "specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering." No one seriously disputes that waterboarding intentionally inflicts serious physical and mental pain. Waterboarding was prosecuted after World War II as torture and has been notorious ever since the Inquisition.
Anderson talks with Liz Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney. Anderson asks whether or not it is appropriate for her father to be so vocal right now, so soon after leaving office. They also talk about the debate surrounding the use of 'enhanced interrogation techniques.'
Ruben Navarrette Jr.
Special to CNN
Thursday's competing addresses on national security from President Obama and Vice President Dick Cheney put into sharp focus the contrast between those who think the military prison at Guantanamo Bay makes us safe and those convinced it makes us less so.
Which side are the American people on? Both actually. Polls show the public pretty evenly split on the question of whether Guantanamo is an asset or a liability.
That isn't likely to change as a result of the speeches. Both presentations were first-rate, comprehensive and - to a point - persuasive. More importantly, they showed courage - something missing in Congress, where lawmakers are only making a tough situation even tougher by playing politics with national security because of shortsighted provincialism.
Anderson talks with a panel about the national security speeches by former Vice President Cheney and President Obama.
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