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President Obama and former Vice President Dick Cheney offered competing views on how to keep America safe in back-to-back speeches Thursday. Obama said his administration is trying to clean up “a mess” left behind by the Bush administration. He defended his plan to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba, his ban on torture, the release of Bush-era interrogation memos and his objection to the release of prisoner photos.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney defended the Bush administration’s national security record Thursday and argued that President Obama is weakening the country’s ability to combat al Qaeda and other extremists.
“The soldier and the lawyer may both love this country with equal passion,” Barack Obama said in his elegant Notre Dame commencement speech, “and yet reach very different conclusions on the specific steps needed to protect us from harm.” You can say that again. In recent weeks, the President and just about every other major politician from both parties have been boggled by soldier-lawyer disputes.
As Dick Cheney prepares to give a major speech on the battle against terrorism, a new national poll suggests that favorable opinions of the former vice president are on the rise. But the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey, released Thursday morning, indicates that a majority of Americans still have an unfavorable opinion of Cheney. Fifty-five percent of people questioned in the poll say they have an unfavorable opinion of the former vice president
The contentious debate over so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" took center stage on Capitol Hill on Wednesday as a former FBI agent involved in the questioning of terror suspects testified that such techniques — including waterboarding — are ineffective. Ali Soufan, an FBI special agent from 1997 to 2005, told members of a key Senate Judiciary subcommittee that such “techniques, from an operational perspective, are ineffective, slow and unreliable, and harmful to our efforts to defeat al Qaeda.” His remarks followed heated exchanges between committee members with sharply differing views on both the value of the techniques and the purpose of the hearing itself
"You probably think I’m a monster." That’s what FBI agents said former U.S.
President Barack Obama isn’t afraid to laugh at himself. In fact, he appears to revel in it.
President Obama drew big laughs at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner Saturday, taking jabs at his administration, his Republican rivals and even himself. “I would like to talk about what my administration plans to achieve in the next 100 days,” Obama said. “During the second 100 days, we will design, build and open a library dedicated to my first 100 days.” He added later, “I believe that my next 100 days will be so successful, I will be able to complete them in 72 days — and on the 73rd day I will rest.” The Democratic president poked fun at the Republican Party, saying it “does not qualify for a bailout” and conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh “doesn’t count as a troubled asset.” Watch Obama deliver laughs at dinner » Obama touched on a few gaffes during his short time in office, from Vice President Joe Biden’s verbose tendencies to an unfortunate Air Force One photo op that frightened New Yorkers — playfully pointing his finger at his young daughters.
What prompted Condoleezza Rice to break a self-imposed silence on the Bush Administration’s controversial use of harsh interrogation techniques on terror detainees? Friends and colleagues of the former Secretary of State say it was not something she had planned, but that she was simply responding to questions in public settings
Judging by the hysterical reaction in some quarters, to President Obama’s handshake with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, or his bow to Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, you would think that America’s national security rested solely on body language not sound policy. But just for the record, let’s not forget that President George W. Bush kissed and held hands with the same Abdullah after 9/11, while also looking deep into the soul of Vladimir Putin.