"Enough to make a Jackal puke"

In an interview with Jonathan Karl of ABC News, Dick Cheney, in all his arrogance, has admitted to two major crimes: 

1.  Lying to the American people - no matter what the intelligence may or may not have shown, he would have still declared war on Iraq - Cheney said, "This was a bad actor, and the country's better off, the world's better off, with Saddam gone, and I think we made the right decision, in spite of the original NIE (National Intelligence Estimate) was off in some of its major judgments." 

We went to war simply because Dick Cheney wanted to.

Dan Kennedy of the UK Guardian wrote, "For Dick Cheney, the cause of so much suffering, to assert with such smug certitude that it was all for the best is enough to make a jackal puke." I couldn't have said it any better.

2.  Authorizing war crimes of torture. In the ABC interview Cheney admitted that he was directly involved in approving the use of torture by the CIA. In talking about Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was waterboarded over 100 times, Cheney said he was involved in the approval and added, "So it's been a remarkably successful effort. I think the results speak for themselves." The reporter even pushed him a bit by asking if in hindsight did he think the tactics go too far. Cheney replied, "I don't." And again Karl asked if the tactic of waterboarding, which we no longer use, was appropriate to use with KSM. And again Cheney replied,"I do."

There you have it folks -- if Cheney is not charged with the crime of torture of prisoners of war, then we are indeed no better than the terrorists that we denounce.

Cheney and his cronies will say that waterboarding isn't really torture and isn't a punishable offense. But check out the history of waterboarding that NPR reported in a story they did on torture and war crimes in November of 2007 during the Mukasey nomination hearings. In that piece they cite legal cases from World War II, The Vietnam War, and a 1983 case involving a Texas sheriff. The perpetrators of the waterboarding torture in all three cases were found guilty and sentenced accordingly.

Why should Cheney remain above the law? He must be charged and tried just like the others. 

If Cheney is not held accountable, where will it end?