Cheney: Obama detainee policies make US less safe

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-03-16 10:20

Asked if he was declaring "mission accomplished" -- those words graced a banner aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln that heralded Bush's overly optimistic declaration on May 1, 2003, that major combat operations had ended in Iraq -- Cheney replied: "I wouldn't use that, just because it triggers reactions that we don't need."

He added: "But I would ask people -- and the press, too -- to take an honest look at the circumstances in Iraq today and how far we've come."

In a wide-ranging interview, Cheney also:

Agreed that Obama had inherited "difficult" economic circumstances but rejected efforts to blame the Bush administration.

"We are in the midst of a worldwide economic period of considerable difficulty here," he said. "It doesn't do just to go back and say, 'Well, George Bush was president and that is why everything is screwed up,' because that is simply not true."

Contended that Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts and Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, Democrats with top positions on congressional banking committees, blocked Bush administration efforts to reform lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. "I think the collapse of those two institutions, as much as anything, contributed to the financial difficulties we've been living with since," he said.

Worried that Obama was using the economic crisis "to justify a massive expansion in the government and much more authority for the government over the private sector, and I don't think that's good."

Dismissed criticism from some conservatives that Obama is taking on too much and too quickly.

Criticized Obama's choice for ambassador to Iraq, Christopher Hill, as lacking experience in the region. Cheney said he didn't support Hill's work in dealing with North Korea on nuclear issues during the Bush administration.

Called his former chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby "an innocent man" who deserved a pardon from Bush. The issue of pardoning Libby was a subject of intense disagreement with Bush at the close of his presidency, Cheney said.

Libby was convicted of perjury and obstructing justice in the investigation of the 2003 leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity. Bush commuted Libby's sentence and saved him from serving time in prison, but Libby remains a convicted felon.

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