Hillary on Cheney: Not 'a particularly reliable source'

 

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was testifying on Capitol Hill this morning when she was asked about former Vice President Dick Cheney's request to declassify documents showing the "success" of harsh interrogation torture techniques approved by President George W. Bush after the 9/11 terror.

"It won't surprise you that I don't consider him [Cheney] a particularly reliable source," she said.

Pressed by California Republican Dana Rohrabacher about whether she would advise President Obama to release the documents, Clinton replied: "I'm not going to share that with you," Clinton said.

The former first lady, former senator and former presidential candidate used her knowledge of Washington's gotcha politics to dodge some other bullets too. It was a feisty performance, with a lot of Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee piling on.

Indiana Republican Dan Burton pressed Clinton to urge the Obama administration not to prosecute "people at the CIA or the Justice Department who were just doing their job to try to protect this country."

And South Carolina Republican Bob Inglis, asked Clinton why had not been more openly critical about forced abortions during her visit to China.

Clinton said that she opposes China's policy of forcing women to have abortions, and has ever since she was first lady.

"Why didn't you say it as secretary of State?" Inglis asked.

"I just did," Clinton replied.

She also clashed on abortion with New Jersey Republican Chris Smith, defending her support for family planning and contraception on the international stage.

Smith questioned how Clinton could accept an award honoring Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, a group Smith said had "killed over 305,000 children by abortion in the U.S. and millions more worldwide."

Replied Clinton: "I deeply respect your passionate views" but "we obviously have a profound disagreement." And, she added, "We are now an administration that will protect the rights of women, including reproductive health care."

Through it all, Clinton was a loyal team player. Though the two clashed on the presidential campaign trail last year -- Clinton accused Obama of being naive for suggesting an outreach to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- today she quoted Obama's inaugural address about offering an open hand to Iran as soon as it unclenched its fist.

"We actually believe that by following the diplomatic path we are on, we gain credibility and influence with a number of nations who would have to participate in order to make the sanctions regime as tight and as crippling as we would want it to be," she said.

-- Johanna Neuman

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Photo credits: Cheney -- Associated Press; Clinton -- Getty Images

Comments

[Pom Pom Girl]

Hillary's Sniperless Bosnia Adventure Shows She's A Reliable Source???????
Hillary Clintons story about landing in Bosnia under sniper fire, running to the car with her and Chelsea's heads down and a canceled greeting rang as very inspirational and possibly Presidential. Too bad Sinbad and others on the trip began to speak out and claim it was all a farce. Hillary and her daughter discounted their stories and insisted it was true. We have documented news footage that it wasn't true.
The truth is that Hillary and Chelsea strolled off the plane, were met by greeters on the tarmac, remained there to hear a little girls sing and then posed for photo opportunities with nary a sniper to worry about.
When the footage surfaced she called her repeated statements a misstatement.
When troops are being shot at and dying over seas, she makes false statements about imagined moments under fire. I guess that says it all. I guess 12 years ago and the lies she told now says everything you need to know about her character. She is not only too inexperience for Secretary of State she would be an embarrassment as well.

[Pom Pom Girl]

Why would the LA times choose such and angry photo of Mr. Cheney.
You guys are losing credibility on being fair and unbiased.

[steve rodriguez]

The pot calling the kettle black! Thank you Hillary!

[Peggy Pendleton]

This is a terrific piece and reassures me that Madame Secretary of State, has represented us very well on the international stage, and yet still knows how to sling it with the idiots in the congress. She makes me feel very proud again, and it's been a damn long time since I felt really proud of my country. Yes, my countries actions around the world have made me ashamed and to feel unsafe in the larger world. Now that's changed. I'm planning my first international trip since the Bush Administration took office.

[Lux INterior]

Pom Pom Girl: That incident did not unnecessarily destabilize a region spreading terror and death to innocent civilians.

[barbara lee]

the headline should read: Hillary, Not 'a particularly reliable source'

[Pom Pom Girl]

Asking Yourself Who Is Margaret Sanger? Read On:

Late last March, Hillary Clinton received the Margaret Sanger Award named for the organization's founder, a noted eugenicist who championed abortion among other things. Clinton, repeatedly interrupted by applause, cited several recent actions by the Obama Administration demonstrating that 'reproductive rights' are a crucial element of the new president's foreign policy. Whether you are for or against abortion and family planning, apparently Ms. Clintons aids did not research the award she was receiving prior to accepting it.
Ms. Sanger founded Planned parenthood but was a proponent of eugenics, advocating selective breeding, sterilization and euthanasia. In 1932 Sanger urged "a stern and rigid policy of sterilization and segregation to that grade of population whose progeny is already tainted or whose inheritance is such that objectionable traits may be transmitted to offspring." In her 1938 autobiography, describes how well she got along with the woman's branch of the KKK at Silver Lake, N.J. in a speech she gave to them. The same Ms. Sanger who was associated with The Negro Project, whose main idea was to recruit charismatic black ministers to encourage black women to practice birth control, thereby reducing the number of black babies being born. In a December 10, 1939 letter, Sanger wrote to Dr. Gamble: "We do not want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population and the minister is the man who can straighten that idea out if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.”

Despite the history, Ms. Clinton said "I admire Margaret Sanger enormously, her courage, her tenacity, her vision…..when I think about what she did all those years ago in Brooklyn, taking on archetypes, taking on attitudes and accusations flowing from all directions, I am really in awe of her." Well, I for one am in awe of Sec. Clintons ignorance or callousness.