Dick Cheney lied to me on war, says GOP leader

It is the central charge against the Bush White House, that the administration lied its way into a war in Iraq.

For years, left-wing pundits and groups like MoveOn.org beat the drums with this accusation. The White House response: We were just acting on the same intelligence everyone else had -- evidence, which turned out to be faulty, that Iraq's Saddam Hussein was harboring weapons of mass destruction.

Now comes Dick Armey, once House Majority Leader, who described a classified one-on-one briefing in the vice president's hideaway office in the U.S. Capitol where he says Vice President Dick Cheney went beyond that into outright deception.

According to a new book on Cheney called "Angler," by Washington Post reporter Barton Gellman, Armey, a Texas Republican, had spoken out against the war. Cheney was trying to change his mind. So the vice president told him the threat from Iraq was actually "more imminent than we want to portray to the public at large." In Armey's account, Cheney told him:

Iraq's "ability to miniaturize weapons of mass destruction, particularly nuclear," had been "substantially refined since the first Gulf War," and would soon result in "packages that could be moved even by ground personnel....We now know they have the ability to develop these weapons in a very portable fashion, and they have a delivery system in their relationship with organizations such as Al Qaeda."

"Did Dick Cheney ... purposely tell me things he knew to be untrue?" Armey said. "I seriously feel that may be the case...Had I known or believed then what I believe now, I would have publicly opposed [the war] resolution right to the bitter end, and I believe I might have stopped it from happening."

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Mykola Lazarenko/AP

Comments

[richard]

Oh! This should be interesting seeing the comments of hardened partisans that simply cannot adjust to the facts! Let's see the verbal contortiions!

[Paul]

What? The Bush Administration is currupt? Are you kidding? The next thing you'll tell me is that Elton John is gay...yeah, right. He's a manly man.

[ALEX]

What's new? 4000 plus of our couragous men and women died because of this lies and hundred of thousands of Iraqi civilians killed. WHAT'S NEWS!!!

[Ducarmel Sagesse]

America! Open your eyes. We are not going to take another four years of lies anymore. Our lovely America is going down with those special groups. We are losing our reputation in the world. The Repulicain Party lost all its credibility. Everything that the party does is based on lies. Open our eyes to see the danger that is hanging on us if we continue dealing those liers.
Enough is enough. May God continue to bless this great land, America and bless the world.

[mark]

Geee Cheney lied?? Bush lied?? Rummy lied?? I can't imagine that. That's outrageous. That's Democrats lying about it for the elections.

Sorry guys, I just wanted to get there before some right wing drunk said it. We've known it was a lie since 9-11. We knew that was a lie too. If it comes out of the right side, it's wrong.

[Michael Grant Smith]

Damned lying liberal Democrats!

Wait.

Armey is a Republican.

What?

[bopst]

Is this really news? Anybody already paying attention could have told you that the Bush Administration lied and continues to lie to justify whatever they currently want to justify.

The bigger question is this: With all the illegal activity that has come to define the Bush Administration, will anyone in this corrupt regime ever have to face legal ramifications for their actions?

[PETER]

ANYONE WITH HALF A BRAIN IN THEIR HEAD KNEW THE BUSH ADMINITRATION LIED DURING THE BUILD UP TO WAR.

[Thoren58]

Of all the possible choices, McCain chose a running mate whose views and vaules are the same as Bush/Cheney.

PALIN IS BUSH!


I want change!

McCain/Palin: The Bridge to Nowhere.

[Tadomm]

Dick Cheney Lied!...and we're shocked?.........THIS is the Bush Doctrine.......this administration will go down as the worse presidency (and vice-presidency) in the history of the United States......... When the time comes, the ony books that should be allowed in the Bush Library are fiction.......

[tom]

Cheney is a handwringer, and every handwringer I ever met was a liar. He wraps one hand around the other and wrings it like one would a dish cloth.

[vietnam]

Rings of War
by Charley Reese
Think of a war as a violent center of a circle with concentric rings of people surrounding it. At the center are the soldiers who have to fight the war. In the next ring are the people whose loved ones are doing the fighting. In the third ring, at a safe distance, are the politicians who started the war.
The fourth ring includes journalists, to whom the war is just another story. They get paid to write and talk about something, and a war is a long-lasting topic.
The fifth ring includes the self-anointed experts, who love to do sound bites on television and participate in panel discussions.
The sixth ring includes the arms industry, which, wisely, keeps a low profile. Arms merchants, after all, view the war as a permanent holiday sale. The longer it lasts, the more profits they make. There is a distinct advantage in products that self-destruct with one-time use, such as bullets, missiles, bombs and artillery rounds. Even the big-ticket items like vehicles don't last too long.
The seventh and final ring of people includes the majority of Americans, who have no direct interest in the war. They are not in the military, they have no loved ones in the military, and they don't work in the arms industry.
To these people, a war in a distant place is like a television show that they can watch in the comfort of their living room. If they get bored, they can make it go away with a flick of their remote control. The war has no effect on their lives, which go on as if there were no war – as indeed there isn't, so far as they are concerned.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the problem with undeclared foreign wars. The great majority of Americans are excluded from participation. Politicians start wars, and politicians are the only ones who can end them. The fewer people involved in the war, the less pressure there will be on the politicians to end it. That leaves them free to posture on either side of the issue without actually doing anything.
President Bush has no interest in ending the war. Before the terrorist attack in 2001, he was at odds and ends and didn't seem to know what he wanted to do. But now he enjoys being a war president. It's given him a role to play. He's not going to give that up.
Congress, of course, could stop the war by cutting off the funds. That is one of the great checks and balances the founders wrote into the Constitution. Congress has 100 percent of the responsibility for and control of all federal expenditures. There is nothing the executive branch can do about it.
The soldiers can't declare peace. The people of Iraq can't declare peace. Only the American politicians can end this war, and they can't end it by sending more Americans to the killing fields. That ploy didn't work in Vietnam, and it won't work in Iraq.
So, if you want to spare lives, bombard your representatives with letters urging them to end the war now. In the future, we should insist on a declaration of war with a 10 percent surtax on income and a 10 percent war tax on goods and services, both to expire with the cessation of hostilities.
That would force everyone, even those in the seventh ring, to participate in the war and give everyone an incentive to end it. A pay-as-you-fight war would be whole lot less tolerable to most Americans. As long as we force soldiers to bleed, we should bleed financially.
January 1, 2007

[right]

Poor Dick Armey! Imagine, a politician being lied to by another politician. It only took him 5 years (and 100s of thousands of people needlessly killed) for him to figure it out. Someone send him a blankey so he feels better. Go ahead and send one to McCain, too- he'll be needing his soon.

[Achshav]

Cheney lied! Shocking!! And for more of the same, in spades, you can cast a vote for rockin' little Bushelle, biggest liar north of the 49th parallel.

[DS in NJ]

I'm Shocked!!! Shocked I say!!
Bush Co. lied to American??? Unbelievable! Just more Liberal drivel.

[eyeinsee]

Ha! it took him that long to figure out that was lie, i knew that from the day the war started. Now Iran is up next i wonder what B.S they're gonna come up with to invade them

[John B.]

Wow. Talk about dog bites man.

[Jamie]

What's it going to take to get a noose around Cheney's neck? We hang traitors in this country, and Cheney is no doubt a traitor.

[Tom in Ann Arbor]

Gee! , I wonder why he's commenting on it now. Must be running for office.

[Tom]

Wow! I'm so impressed with Dick Armey. It only took him five years to tell America what we all already knew - Dick Cheney is a liar!

Impact of this story on the "Idiocracy"....Zilch!

[VultureTX]

Let's see Cheney lied about some details on Iraq. Did he/bush/Powell/Rumsfeld/ lie about all no. Did Iraq support terrorists yes? did they harbor terrorists yes? did Iraq attack Coalition forces despite a cease fire. yes? did Iraq bribe the UN and members in the oil for food? yes. But yes Cheney lied to some some congressmen.

Now since you claim that is enough, how about we put Secretary Mcnamara on trial right now for lying about the start of Vietnam War. He did worse, and now even admits its(Well some). Oh wait you won't because he did it as a Democrat.

[Creedance]

This story is not in the least insignificant. What we'll find just a few more steps away is that 911 was an inside job by the Neocons, FBI and Masons. Bush's rise to power was pushed and funded by the Oil Industry. Bush's objective was to get an Oil pipeline built in Afghanistan and to invade Iraq. Dick was the perfect running mate, CEO of a military corporation that would stand to win substantial non-compete contracts worth billions. Bush/Cheney raped us folks, took over 3,000 lives in 911 (while on the side earning billions in the stock market knowing the acts were going to occur), sent and killed over 4,000 more invading Iraq all so that some very, very wealthy people became even more wealthy and powerful. Our minds are controlled by the substances our government puts in our water, in products we use and the wealthy-controlled media that feeds us a lot of insignificant and false informntation. We need to grow some nuts and take back our democracy.

[Vinny]

There were proponents and opponents of the war right from the beginning. Even a common man like me understood then, the kind of arm-twisting that the administration tried with the UN nuclear inspectors goading them to find evidence where, as it turned out, there was none. I remember the administration giving them a few months to find the evidence whereas the US Int with unhindered access took years to uncover none (after the war).

Then they silenced all opposition as unpatriotic, all evidence to the contrary, suspect to the extent that they even revealed the information about their own intelligence operatives.

The Republicans, if they are as much about service to this country as they proclaim, should take a self-imposed exile from Governance and politics. All they need to do, to see what they did, is look at all the economic statistics after 1999 and today. Look at international good-will until a few days after 9/11 and good-will today.

While practically the entire country is being bled, there are a few Republicans - friends of the administration enjoying the plunder, probably even having a good laugh.

McCain was one of the few Republicans I respected, in spite of his support for the war, until he chose Palin. I can understand his calculations, but choosing someone who thinks the war on Iraq was God's will? Puhleese!

Between Bush and Dick, this country got screwed, and the Republicans applauded and now they are stepping up one at a time to repent? True repentance asks for more than empty words. It asks for true service, even sacrifice to reverse the impact of your earlier actions.

[sam]

no facts....no written or verbal transcipt, no proof at all. go figure the LA times to write an article that is so slanted to the left. Nevermind that Obama has admitted that the surge was a success which is a confession that the war has been won and that more than half of the bechmarks have been met. the war was worth it for whatever reason. when the elitist, pseudo-intellectucal left realizes that the world we live in can not rest on idealism maybe then America will return to the power it once was.

[Joe T]

So slow to come into print, will it make any change. Will any of the "Gang of MANY" ever pay a price for this? Will we elect Bush ll? I am left with no one to vote for! Have felt that for many months now, ever since Bush ll and Hussain captured the front.
With Wall Street in ruin, our world position ruined, gutting of Interior, our new "lock step" Atty. General, "know nothing" Palin, ike the storm, what do we have left for the crash and burn crowd?
Gates seems the only mature person left and we probably don't know about him yet.
Bush made a tour of the Ike aftermath yesterday. You could see people cringe all over. The west end of Galveston sunk another three feet, Baytown had hundreds of power lines fall and Houston skyscrapers all knelt in shaking fear! Wherever he glanced rain storms spewed forth new waves of destruction. Then he went to Crawford and cut down a tree.