Diplomat blows off Cheney dig at Obama
WASHINGTON (CNN) – A senior diplomat in the Obama administration Sunday challenged former Vice President Dick Cheney’s assessment of the new administration’s ability to keep the country safe.
Cheney was asked two weeks ago on CNN’s State of the Union whether he thought President Obama had made the country less safe since taking office. “I do,” Cheney told CNN Chief National Correspondent John King. “He is making some choices that, in my mind, will, in fact, raise the risk to the American people of another attack,” the former vice president added.
But U.S. special envoy Richard Holbrooke, a senior diplomat in Obama’s State Department, said Sunday that he didn’t understand where Cheney was coming from with his criticism.
“I don’t have a clue what he’s talking about,” Holbrooke said,
“We are treating Afghanistan and Pakistan as a single theater. We are going to address it in an integrated way. We are going to give it more resources. And that is where the people planning the next attack on the United States or on our European allies are certainly doing it. So I just do not understand what his comments were referenced to.”
Gen. David Petraeus, echoed Holbrooke. “You served in the Bush administration under Vice President Cheney and President Bush,” King said to Petraeus. “You're now serving in the Obama administration. Are the American people less safe because of this new president?” King asked
“I wouldn’t necessarily agree with that,” the U.S. CENTCOM commander said Sunday.
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why bother
would have been nice to see john king have some backbone with cheney without letting his personal bias and idealogy get in the way!
“I don’t have a clue what he’s talking about,” Holbrooke said
Cheney doesn't have a clue what he is talking about either.
To Staff sergeant of marine,
I am a ver disappointed in you for making such untrue allegations and distortion of the facts. The president gave an executive order to close Gitmo but it did not quite happen yet because they are trying to figure out how to dispose the "terrorist" appropriately without causing threat to our security. It may take over a year or even more before this happens.
I have so much respect for the US military and i doubt you are one of them.
Closing Guantanamo was a good idea. We have proof that there are non-terrorist detainees being held without trial. Even an American supporter is there. And they aren't being "released" into the streets, but put into maximum security prisons with the home-grown terrorist. Also, has anybody else noticed that both Bush presidents saw terrorist attacks on the exact same building!?