Cheney

Waiter, there's a fly swimming in my soup!Then we've served you too much soup, the fly should be wading.
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All Roads Lead to Dick Cheney
Most people know that Vice President Dick Cheney is former CEO of Halliburton, which makes billions of dollars a year from oil and primarily defense-related construction contracts (and that war and chaos increase Halliburton's profits, which in turn increase the value of Cheney's stock options). Most people also know that Cheney was secretary of Defense under George H. W. Bush.Many people know that Cheney was a congressman from Wyoming. Some even know that he was one of the founders of the Project for a New American Century.Well-read people know that the Project for a New American Century, in turn, called for a new American empire well before 9/11, and lamented that, without a "catastrophic and catalyzing event — like a new Pearl Harbor", transformation of America into an empire would be very slow. But even well-informed people probably don't know that -- in the 70's -- Cheney was instrumental in generating fake intelligence exaggerating the Soviet threat in order to undermine coexistence between the U.S. and Soviet Union, which conveniently justified huge amounts of cold war spending. See also this article. This scheme foreshadowed Mr. Cheney's role in generating fake intelligence about Iraq by 30 years.And did you know that Cheney has been perhaps the leading advocate for strengthening the powers of the White House to the point of monarchy for at least 20 years?Or that newly-released documents show that Cheney was involved in debates concerning illegal wiretaps 30 years ago?Did you catch that the former director of the CIA accused Cheney of overseeing American torture policies ? Or that Colin Powell's former chief of staff stated that Dick Cheney is guilty of war crimes for his role in facilitating torture?And, according to to the Pulitzer prize-winning reporter who uncovered the Iraq prison torture scandal and the massacre against Vietnamese civilians, Cheney is the main guy helping to fund groups which the U.S. claims are terrorists.And guess who is the prime architect of efforts to bomb Iran? Yup, Mr. Cheney (see also this article).To recap, Cheney's past includes:• Oil• Defense• Faking intelligence and using scare tactics about enemies to justify a pre-planned military agenda• Lobbying to give the president the powers of the king• Calling for an American empire and lamenting the lack of a "new Pearl Harbor"• Police state type wiretapping• Selling war• Promoting torture• Funding Al-QaedaDid all of these aspects of Mr. Cheney's background converge in the Iraq debacle? Well, a top official at the State Department stated there was a secret "cabal" involving Cheney, and that Cheney and a handful of others had hijacked the country's foreign policy.Did they converge on 9/11?This last question is not merely academic: vice President Cheney was apparently in charge of ALL 5 of the war games which occurred on 9/11 and coordinated the government's "response" to the attacks. See this CNN article; and this essay.And Cheney is the one who monitored flight 77 for many miles as it approached the Pentagon and -- when a military man asked "do the orders still stand?" -- Cheney responded affirmatively:"The plane is 50 miles out. The plane is 30 miles out." And when it got down to, "The plane is 10 miles out," the young man also said to the vice president, "Do the orders still stand?" And the vice president turned and whipped his neck around and said, "Of course the orders still stand. Have you heard anything to the contrary?"Watch the video for yourself (and see this essay).Mr. Cheney's motive concerning 9/11 was strong. As a well-known writer said:"For his entire career, he sought untrammeled power. The Bush presidency and 9/11 finally gave it to him . . ."Postscript: For the sake of brevity, I have left out numerous additional acts committed by Mr. Cheney. For example, you may have heard that the Energy Task Force chaired by Cheney prior to 9/11 collected maps of Iraqi oil fields and potential suitors for that oil. But did you know that a secret document written by the National Security Council on February 3, 2001 directed the N.S.C. staff to cooperate fully with the Energy Task Force as it considered the “melding” of two seemingly unrelated areas of policy: “the review of operational policies towards rogue states,” such as Iraq, and “actions regarding the capture of new and existing oil and gas fields”? In other words, it is difficult to brush off Cheney's Energy Task Force's examination of Iraqi oil maps as a harmless comparison of American energy policy with known oil reserves because the N.S.C. explicitly linked the Task Force, oil, and regime change. Indeed, a former senior director for Russian, Ukrainian, and Eurasian affairs at the N.S.C. said “if this little group was discussing geostrategic plans for oil, it puts the issue of war in the context of the captains of the oil industry sitting down with Cheney and laying grand, global plans” (see also this essay).Of course, Cheney has not acted alone in his actions. But he's been an important player in many different arenas and is, perhaps, the most widely-known figure who has had a hand in all of the above-described events. Cheney might not be the ultimate Mr. Big in these crimes, but he appears to have gotten his hands dirtier -- and to be closer to the true seat of power -- even than Mr. Bush.In addition, while Cheney was not solely responsible for the above-listed actions, he hired many of the people who caused the mischief, such as the chief architect of the Iraq war - Paul Wolfowitz.
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Here is Wolfowitz in his new role.
Neocons and nepotism? Sex, money & the fall of Wolfowitz
The man affectionately known as 'Wolfie' by George Bush has struggled to make friends in his new job as the head of the World Bank. Now his staff are accusing him of lavishing promotions and pay rises on his girlfriend
By Rupert Cornwell

For a mild-mannered and scrupulously polite man, Paul Wolfowitz has a remarkable knack of attracting controversy. There are the minuscule controversies - such as when, in his current incarnation as President of the World Bank, he was seen to have holes in his socks when he took off the mandatory slippers after a visit to a mosque in Turkey earlier this year. Was this handsomely paid international civil servant such a cheapskate that he wouldn't shell out a few dollars for some new socks?
Then of course there are somewhat more serious controversies, among them the war in Iraq, of which Wolfowitz, then deputy Secretary of Defence, was one of the most enthusiastic advocates and principal architects.
Wolfowitz, it will be remembered, fervently believed that the American invaders would be hailed as liberators, and that the occupation would require no more than 100,000 troops at most. These surely rank as two of the more disastrous military misjudgements of recent times.
And now he is in yet more trouble, this time over the promotion and lavish pay rises accorded to his partner, a former senior employee of the Bank. Shaha Riza is a British national of Libyan ancestry who grew up in Saudi Arabia. She and Wolfowitz have been together since his previous marriage broke down in 2001. Indeed, her strong belief in bringing democracy to the Arab world is said to have only strengthened her partner's determination to confer that boon on Iraq.
Their relationship became public when Wolfowitz succeeded James Wolfensohn at the helm of the Bank in mid-2005. At first he attempted to keep her in her job as communications adviser at the Bank's Middle East department, even though that was flatly against the ethics rules of the organisation. In the end she was sent to the State Department, but stayed on the World Bank's payroll. She was promoted and given two rises well above staff norms, bringing her salary to $193,000 (£98,000) - more than Condoleezza Rice, the Secretary of State.
Among Bank employees, the indignation was widespread and understandable. Given Wolfowitz's reputation as a neoconservative and his identification with George Bush's war in Iraq, he was an unpopular choice as president from the outset.
Since then, he has made the fight against corruption, both in countries receiving World Bank aid, and among Bank employees, a priority issue.
But was not the Riza affair an example, if not of corruption, then at least of favouritism and nepotism, those selfsame Third World vices against which Wolfowitz now campaigns?
Last week the Bank's staff association formally complained about the promotion and pay increases, and on Monday Wolfowitz promised in an email to employees that the association would have full access to the facts of the case, for which he accepted "full responsibility".
In the meantime, Riza has left the State Department. She is now said to be working for the Foundation for the Future, an international group largely funded by the US, whose prime mission is (you've guessed) to advance freedom and democracy in the Middle East and north Africa. But will that be the end of the matter?
Paul Wolfowitz, after all, is a man who carries a good deal of baggage. When he was named by Bush to head the Bank in early 2005, an in-house survey found that nearly 90 per cent of staff opposed the choice.