Cheney defends hard-line role
WASHINGTON -- Vice President Dick Cheney yesterday defended his lightning-rod role as a leading advocate for invading Iraq, for a warrantless surveillance program, and for harsh treatment of suspected terrorists.
``Part of my job is to think about the unthinkable, to focus upon what in fact the terrorists may have in store for us," Cheney told NBC's ``Meet the Press" when asked about his ``dark side."
Cheney said he now recognizes that the insurgency in Iraq was not ``in its last throes," as he said in May 2005. ``I think there is no question but that we did not anticipate an insurgency that would last this long," the vice president said.
``It's still difficult. Obviously, major, major work to do is ahead of us. But the fact is, the world is better off today with Saddam Hussein out of power ," Cheney said.
Cheney shrugged off news reports that his influence was waning, partly as a result of foreign policy miscalculations and partly as other advisers, especially Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, were getting more attention from President Bush. The vice president said the reports were about as valid ``as the ones that said I was in charge of everything."
Rice told ``Fox News Sunday" that ``these stories float around Washington -- who's up, who's down. The vice president remains a crucial adviser to the president. His role is different than my role. . . . These stories are simply ridiculous."
Cheney challenged polls suggesting that a majority of people in the United States do not believe the Bush administration's stance that the war in Iraq is the central front in the fight against terrorism. ``We're here on the fifth anniversary [of the Sept. 11 terror attacks]. And there has not been another attack on the United States ," Cheney said in the broadcast interview.
He said the United States had done a good job on ``homeland security, in terms of the terrorist surveillance program we put in place, the financial tracking we put in place, and because of our detainee policy."
Cheney also said he still disagrees with the Supreme Court's decision in June that the administration overstepped its authority in holding suspected terrorists without trials or Geneva Conventions protections. He declined to discuss specific treatment of detainees, but said information gleaned from interrogations ``helped us prevent attacks against the United States." 