Dick Cheney meets with Prince Sultan, Minister of Defense and Aviation in Saudi Arabia to discuss how to handle the invasion of Kuwait 1 December 1990 - MASTER SGT. JOSE LOPEZ JR. photo

Video Beat EXTRA EXTRA Part 4 - DICK CHENEY - DOING THE BUSINESS

James Loving - National Radio Text Service

The media's deflection of their focus on Julian Assange and ignoring a major story of former US Vice President Dick Cheney paying a $25 million fine in a plea bargain to avoid prosecution on bribery charges in Nigeria raise some red flags - THE CIA's SECRET WAR film - Recommended TV Listings

Wednesday December 22, 2010

POLITICS & BUSINESS = MONEY

The manner in which some US media choose to report certain stories and ignore others begs the question WHY? CNN ignored the story about former US Vice President Dick Cheney paying a $250 million fine in a plea bargain to avoid prosecution on bribery charges in Nigeria. Big businesses that make money on wars were to benefit from the alleged bribes. The plea bargain and fine speaks for itself.

The British media's Guardian newspaper reported the story that was largely hushed up in the USA. The USA story of choice was Julian Assange and the WikiLeaks revelations about dirty tricks employed by governments. Cheney has a history of problems behind him.

Cheney was two years into his political career when Julian Assange was born July 3, 1971. At the time Assange's birth Cheney was 30-years-old.

Cheney's political career began in 1969, as an intern for Congressman William A. Steiger during the Richard Nixon Administration. He then joined the staff of Donald Rumsfeld, who was then Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity from 1969-70. He held several positions in the years that followed: White House Staff Assistant in 1971, Assistant Director of the Cost of Living Council from 1971-73, and Deputy Assistant to the president from 1974-1975. As deputy assistant, Cheney suggested several options in a memo to Rumsfeld, including use of the US Justice Department, that the Ford administration could use to limit damage from an article, published by The New York Times, in which investigative reporter Seymour Hersh reported that Navy submarines had tapped into Soviet undersea communications as part of a highly classified program.

Cheney was Assistant to the President under Gerald Ford. When Rumsfeld was named Secretary of Defense, Cheney became White House Chief of Staff, succeeding Rumsfeld. He later was campaign manager for Ford's 1976 presidential campaign.

In June 2007, the Washington Post in a four-part series, based in part on interviews with former administration officials summarized Cheney's vice presidency and behind the scenes influence on the administration's environmental policy to ease pollution controls for power plants, facilitate the disposal of nuclear waste, open access to federal timber resources, and avoid federal constraints on greenhouse gas emissions, among other issues. The articles characterized his approach to policy formulation as favoring business over the environment.

On February 14, 2010, in an appearance on ABC's This Week, Cheney reiterated his support of waterboarding and enhanced interrogation techniques for captured terrorist suspects, saying, "I was and remain a strong proponent of our enhanced interrogation program." At the time, Cheney still enjoyed strong support from voters in the Republican Party.

On July 11, 2009 CIA Director Leon E. Panetta told the Senate and House intelligence committees that the CIA withheld information about a secret counter-terrorism program from Congress for eight years on direct orders from Dick Cheney. Intelligence and Congressional officials have said the unidentified program did not involve the CIA interrogation program and did not involve domestic intelligence activities. They have said the program was started by the counter-terrorism center at the CIA shortly after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, but never became fully operational, involving planning and some training that took place off and on from 2001 until this year. Wall Street Journal reported, citing former intelligence officials familiar with the matter, that the program was an attempt to carry out a 2001 presidential authorization to capture or kill al Qaeda operatives.

Although, by custom, a former Vice President receives unofficial six month protection from the United States Secret Service, President Obama reportedly extended the protection period for Cheney.

Donald Rumsfeld, former Secretary of Defense of the United States - (Public domain photo)

RUMSFIELD NOTES

Donald Rumsfeld served as the 13th Secretary of Defense under President Gerald Ford from 1975 to 1977 and as the 21st Secretary of Defense under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2006. He is both the youngest (43 years old) and the oldest (74 years old) person to have served as Secretary of Defense as well as the only person to have served in the position for two non-consecutive terms. Overall, he was the second longest serving defense secretary behind Robert McNamara.

Rumsfeld defended the Bush administration's decision to detain enemy combatants without protection under the Third Geneva Convention. There was therefore a large amount of pressure from many American organizations and international bodies to enforce the Geneva Conventions. Because of this, critics (including the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee 11-08 Executive Summary, vote 17-0) would hold Rumsfeld personally responsible for the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal. Rumsfeld himself said: "These events occurred on my watch as Secretary of Defense. I am accountable for them."

In an unprecedented move in modern U.S. history, eight retired generals and admirals called for Rumsfeld to resign in early 2006 in what was called the "Generals Revolt," accusing him of "abysmal" military planning and lack of strategic competence. Rumsfeld rebuffed these criticisms, stating that "out of thousands and thousands of admirals and generals, if every time two or three people disagreed we changed the secretary of defense of the United States, it would be like a merry-go-round."

Commentator Pat Buchanan reported at the time that "Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, who travels often to Iraq and supports the war, says that the generals' and admirals' views mirror those of 75 percent of the officers in the field, and probably more." Bush responded to the criticism by stating that Rumsfeld is "exactly what is needed", and also defended him in his controversial decider remark.

Rumsfeld served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of General Instrument Corporation from 1990 to 1993. A leader in broadband transmission, distribution, and access control technologies for cable, satellite and terrestrial broadcasting applications, the company pioneered the development of the first all-digital high-definition television (HDTV) technology. After taking the company public and returning it to profitability, Rumsfeld returned to private business in late 1993.

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