Cheney’s Assassins

March 12, 2009

Comments

The big story at memeorandum is a report by MinnPost‘s Eric Black, passed on by Raw Story‘s Muriel Kane, that Dick Cheney ran a super secret assassination ring out of his office.

Not surprisingly, perhaps, most bloggers on the Right, such as Jules Crittenden and Dan Collins, think Hersh is crazy as a loon while most on the Left, like Marcy Wheeler, Kathy Kattenberg, and “Jill Hussein C.” believe all this is not only plausible but likely.

In my New Atlanticist post, “Cheney’s Assassination Ring,” I explain why I agree with Oliver Willis that we should “take this ‘revelation’ with a silo of salt” but why I believe a key part of the story has merit.

18 responses to “Cheney’s Assassins”

Zelsdorf Ragshaft III

March 12, 2009 at 8:20 am

If true, why is Hersh alive? To prove a death squad, there should be some dead people to point to. Just sayin.
Dave Schuler

March 12, 2009 at 8:28 am

Wake me when Sy Hersh has something other than anonymous sources.
Bithead

March 12, 2009 at 9:26 am

Agreement with both Zels and Dave.

Pointing to someone who was actually killed as a function of this group would be helpful. Absent that, what we have is Hersh trying with his usual ineffectiveness to remain relevant by telling the whackjob left the fairytales they want so desperately to hear.

And when even Willis (possibly the least honest blogger on the planet secondonly to Glenn Greenwald) is a skeptic, you know there’s a serious credability issue.
odograph

March 12, 2009 at 9:33 am

From post-Nixon to pre-Bush I had thought that we gave up secret assassination for two good reasons:

1) nobody needs to worry about watching the list-makers

2) when we bomb in front of God any everybody we prevent the undesirable suspicion that we are behind every other secret killing (Nuns,etc.)

The strategy of public bombings can have its own negative effects, especially if done too often or less discriminately (wedding parties).

That said, if assassinations are back I think we risk (1) and (2) all over again.

Better I think to bomb publicly and rarely.
Clovis

March 12, 2009 at 9:35 am

Dr. Joyner,

It’s a minor quibble, but in your article you’ve got “killing foreign nations” when I ‘m guessing you meant “in foreign nations” or “foreign nationals”: not a big deal but I thought you might want to clean it up.

As to the strange meat of Hersh’s claim, the first thing I thought was psy-ops and the second was black bag jobs with the info obtained used to target or shared with the Mossad guys.

Cheney’s been around long enough to put a step or two of remove between himself and something so potentially damaging.

Then again, people have been known to do strange things when worked up. Forgive me, though, if I require things in writing from Hersh, given his tendency to inflate and mislead when speaking.
James Joyner

March 12, 2009 at 9:51 am

I ‘m guessing you meant “in foreign nations” or “foreign nationals”:

The latter. I fixed it. Thanks!
charles austin

March 12, 2009 at 10:33 am

Well, Sy Hersh has predicted 19 of the last 0 bombings of Iran by the Bush-Cheney cabal. And he seems to have forgotten the first rule of assassination club: never talk about assassination club.
Franklin

March 12, 2009 at 3:41 pm

And when even Willis (possibly the least honest blogger on the planet secondonly to Glenn Greenwald) is a skeptic, you know there’s a serious credability issue.

Please post one example of Glenn Greenwald being dishonest.
sam

March 12, 2009 at 7:23 pm

I want to go on record as saying I have absolutely no problem with whacking AQ folks and their fellow travellers in foreign countries. One hopes, though, that the whacking is done in a professional and thoroughly grounded manner. That Darth Cheney was/may have been involved gives me pause.
Drew

March 12, 2009 at 8:54 pm

Lemmeetellya. Its just as wicked as it seems.

Here’s the real story. Cheney hired Monica Lewinsky to attract targeted Muslims. She had the cred. “You know who I am. You know who I know. You know what I can do.” She got them close to former President Clinton…..and then he plugged’m. Brilliant, eh? Cheney and Clinton, in league? Who knew? (Insiders say its Clinton’s restitution for the Cole.)

Its true. Spread it.
Bithead

March 13, 2009 at 9:15 am

Please post one example of Glenn Greenwald being dishonest.

Oh, hell, that’s easy.
Bithead

March 13, 2009 at 9:16 am

Drew;

Ya know, if anyone took that all seriously, you’d have a position on Obama’s cabinet just waiting for you.

;-D
Franklin

March 13, 2009 at 9:46 am

Oh, hell, that’s easy.

Oh, please. Our very own James Joyner commented on this and didn’t believe the nonsense emanating from the far right wing.

Now could you provide a REAL example?
Bithead

March 13, 2009 at 10:01 am

I was there, Son. Trust me, that IS a real example. He lied, repeatedly. He got caught. Period.

But snce you insist that’s not valid, we could try this.

Or, this.

And a particularly good writeup, this.

I’ve likely already tripped the system into moderation here because of the number of links. But suffice it to say, I have more than enough backing for what I’m saying.
Christopher

March 13, 2009 at 11:07 am

James,
I read your New Atlanticist post. That has to be the shoddiest piece of “journalism” I have read in a long time. You are watching way too many movies, dude. And of all the relevant topics to write about these days…
Franklin

March 13, 2009 at 1:30 pm

Well, I’m still not convinced on the issue of sock puppetry, but to each his own. HotAir has just a bit less credibility than the HuffPost, and I take each with a grain of salt.

I read the last link anyway, since you were fascinated by it, and it seems that author has caught Glenn in a bit of overreaching rhetoric (inferring that most Republicans are bigots just because a few are). If that’s dishonesty, then you’re guilty of the same thing almost every day on this blog, as is nearly everybody else on nearly every blog, political or otherwise.

I have yet to be shown the actual dishonesty, sorry.