Don't Pay Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain

The New York Times reported that Vice President Dick Cheney told the CIA to lie

or cover up from Congress the existence of a secret program designed to capture or kill

Al Qaeda operatives in the world. Senator Diane Feinstein confirmed the report after a

briefing she received from CIA director Leon Panetta, who has now cancelled the program.

The Wall Street Journal reports that there were funds appropriated and some training done,

but the operation was never implemented.

The merits of creating a government version of Murder Inc. can be debated at

another time. Needless to say, we would condemn anyone who created an organization

the purpose of which was to kill American officials. Oh wait, we already do condemn

Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Taliban, and Iran for doing that, don't we?

The really stunning revelation here is that the Vice President of the United States

ordered an executive agency to lie to Congress. The lying part isn't even the interesting

part. The CIA lies to Congress all the time. The interesting part is that the Vice President

ordered, and they obeyed. You remember the Vice Presidency, don't you? John Gardner

once described it being worth less than a "bucket of warm spit". The Vice President has

no executive line of authority over any branch of the government. He is powerless. The

only power he possesses is as President of the Senate, where he can break a tie vote. This

raises the question as to how Cheney could order the CIA to do anything; and why would

they obey him? This new revelation is not small potatoes. The Constitution places no

power in the Vice Presidency. He has no authority. Any authority the Vice President has

he gets through the President. He can't even attend cabinet meetings unless the President

wishes him to be in attendance. So how was Cheney able to order the CIA to lie?

The constitutional and legal questions this raises boggle the mind. Did a coup

occur and was Cheney the de facto President during the Bush years? This is an accusation

that was made by many observing this administration. It was dismissed as the rantings of

partisan enemies of Bush; but now that idea cannot be so easily waved away. Where else

was Cheney giving orders? Did Cheney order the White House counsel and the Justice

Department lawyers to write legal opinions authorizing torture? (which Cheney still defends

as legal) Did Cheney order the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys? What role did Cheney play in

the NSA decision to illegally wire tap and data mine e-mails and internet traffic? Cheney

held secret meetings with oil, gas, and coal officials prior to new Bush regulations easing

restrictions on those industries. Did Cheney order these new rules? CIA analysts said that

Cheney made numerous trips to Langley, VA to pressure them into "cooking the books"

on Iraq. Under whose authority did he do that? When President Bush was out in public,

Cheney was in a secret location totally protected. Who was really the President? These

questions could appear frivolous, except that they go to the core of our constitutional

republican form of government. Was there a power in Washington that the people didn't

know about? Could Cheney have been elected President all on his own?

We need answers to these questions. Do you understand the implications of what

this could mean to our form of government? What role did Bush play in all of this? Did

the President know? Did Bush turn the Presidency over to Cheney? President Clinton

elevated the FEMA director to a cabinet role, a decision that Cheney and his ilk disagreed

with. Did Cheney reduce FEMA's role and influence; and is that how we got "Brownie",

and is that why the federal response to Katrina was so poor? Haven't you ever wondered

how it was that the musings of the Vice President caused the CIA to task a mission to Niger,

assign Ambassador Wilson to go, and then report back to the Vice President what he found?

Then, when his findings disagreed with the Vice President's contentions about Saddam

Hussein and nuclear weapons, a Cheney protege put 18 words into the President's State

of the Union speech which were not true and that the President had to eventually disavow.

Who was President of the United States from 2001-2008? It's not a crazy question

anymore. President Obama cannot dither and tap dance anymore. The American people

need to know if their government was hijacked in a bloodless (unless you count almost

5000 dead American soldiers, 50-100 thousand wounded, and as many as one million dead

Iraqis) coup? There needs to be a thorough investigation by an independent source.

Attorney General Eric Holder is said to be leaning towards investigating "rogue" CIA

agents who may have engaged in torture. President Obama is on the record as saying that

what Holder wants to do is Holder's decision alone. That isn't enough in this case. We know

that Cheney was selectively declassifying secret documents to be leaked to reporters in

the outing of covert CIA analyst Valerie Plame Wilson. Where did he get that authority?

Was he doing it on his own? Did he have to ask for permission? What did President Bush

know, and when did he know it?

This isn't about lying over an affair with an intern (which led to an impeachment

trial). This is a possible coup. This is a possible usurpation of the Constitution on an

epic scale. This is the grandaddy of constitutional crisises that would make Watergate

look like a walk in the park. There must be a full blown investigation. No stone can be

left unturned. Bush administration officials have to be under oath; including the President,

the Vice President, Rice, Rumsfeld, Addington, Libby, Bolton, et al.

The movie "Seven Days in May" is one of my favorite movies. In it, the military

attempts a coup to remove the President because they disagree with him on foreign policy.

It is a scary movie and raises questions about the nature of democracy and elections and

power, and how it is wielded in this country. It is a work of fiction, but disturbing none

the less. Questions about Cheney are not fiction. Who was running this country? President

Obama has to announce a full scale investigation, no matter where the chips fall. The

American people have the right to know what happened, and how to prevent it from ever

happening again. It wasn't "Seven Days in May", but it might have been eight years in

Washington. What do you think? I welcome your comments and rebuttals. Please send

them to lionoftheleft @gmail.com