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Cheney Decries Removal Of Bush Terror Policies

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Los Angeles Times

Published: March 16, 2009

WASHINGTON - Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday that by jettisoning key elements of the Bush administration's approach to terrorism, President Barack Obama had increased the risk of more attacks on the United States.

The criticism came in a broad-based attack on Obama during a Sunday news program in which Cheney also disagreed with expanded White House involvement in the economy and denied that President George W. Bush was responsible for the nation's financial ills.

Cheney has sharply questioned Obama before, but the latest attempt comes amid a chorus of Republican criticism that has had little effect on Obama's popularity ratings or his success in pushing his programs through Congress.

Cheney said that the key elements of the Bush administration's approach to terrorism suspects were "absolutely essential" to what he described as its success in foiling subsequent attacks after Sept. 11, 2001.

"Now he's made some choices that in my mind raise the risk to the American people of another attack," Cheney said on CNN's "State of the Union."

Since entering office, Obama has announced plans to close the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention facility; banned waterboarding, an interrogation measure that simulates drowning; ordered the closure of secret intelligence interrogation sites; and called for the use of more restrictive procedures in interrogations. On Friday, the administration officially dropped the use of the term "enemy combatants" in legal papers.

Cheney said the Obama administration is returning to the Clinton administration's approach of treating terrorism as a law enforcement matter, rather than a "war." He warned that such an approach represented a de-escalation of the effort.

"They're very much giving up that center of attention and focus that's required," he said.

Cheney criticized the new administration's approach to business regulation and said plans to reform health care, energy and the environment constituted "one of the greatest expansions of federal control over the private economy, probably in the history of the republic."

Obama has said he generally favors a limited government role but that he would take whatever steps are needed to ease the economic crisis.

Although he acknowledged that the economy Obama inherited was "difficult," Cheney said the Bush administration did not deserve the blame that Obama and other administration officials were directing its way. He called the downturn a "global problem" and argued that the Bush administration's effort to deal with a key ingredient - the disarray of government institutions Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - was blocked by Democratic committee chairmen in Congress.

The accusation represents a frequent Republican explanation for the financial crisis, although economic experts have described the reasons as more numerous and complex than the problems at the government-backed mortgage companies.

CHENEY SPEAKS

•Agreed that Obama had inherited "difficult" economic circumstances but rejected efforts to blame the Bush administration.

•Contended that Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts and Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, Democrats with top positions on congressional banking committees, blocked Bush administration efforts to reform lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

•Worried that Obama was using the economic crisis "to justify a massive expansion in the government and much more authority for the government over the private sector, and I don't think that's good."

•Dismissed criticism from some conservatives that Obama is taking on too much too quickly.

•Criticized Obama's choice for ambassador to Iraq, Christopher Hill, as lacking experience in the region. Cheney said he didn't support Hill's work in dealing with North Korea on nuclear issues during the Bush administration.

•Called his former chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby "an innocent man" who deserved a pardon from Bush. The issue of pardoning Libby was a subject of intense disagreement with Bush at the close of his presidency, Cheney said.

The Associated Press

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