From the point shortly prior to the time that Dick Cheney theoretically gave up the reins of Halliburton to run on a ticket headed by George W. Bush in 2000 to the present, his conduct has involved multiple layers of deceit.
The Machiavellian antics of Cheney commenced with his resolution of his position heading the selection committee for a running mate to serve with Bush when he ordained himself as the best qualified individual, reportedly outraging ordained minister and former United States Senator John Danforth of Missouri.
Under the circumstances, if Danforth, at one time considered to be Cheney's choice, was as innocent as conventional wisdom believed, he had every right to conclude he had been no more than a duped fall guy for a power hungry political opportunist charging forward at full gallop.
Many believed that the U.S. Constitution had been violated by allowing Cheney on the ticket. The point raised was that, as Halliburton's president operating out of its Texas headquarters, Cheney was a resident of the lone star state rather than that in which he grew up and resided in while in Congress -- Wyoming.
Under the Constitution a chief executive and vice president cannot be residents of the same state, which would have been Texas for both Bush and Cheney had it not been for the timely resolution of maintaining residency for Halliburton's president in Wyoming.
Cheney had been a vigorous neoconservative with established credentials with the Project for the New American Century, which lobbied assiduously for war in Iraq.
The PNAC had pushed hard for war in Iraq while Bill Clinton was president. Once Bush was installed by virtue of a one seat neocon Supreme Court majority, opportunity ripened to attack and oust dictator and former ally of right wing Republicans, Saddam Hussein, and take over the nation's rich oil supply.
Cheney played a false 9/11 card, alleging a non-existent link between Saddam Hussein and the alleged mastermind of the attacks on the World Trade Center, Osama bin Laden and the group he headed, al Qaeda.
He sought to bolster his false case by visiting CIA headquarters and pressuring Middle East intelligence operatives to skew the record and support his fallacious linkage.
Cheney also held secret meetings in his office prior to the Iraq War's launching to divide up profits in advance, with his old firm Halliburton playing a major participatory role in those events, one of the more blatant, rapacious, and deadly conflicts of interest in U.S. history.
When Congressman Henry Waxman and others later pressed for release of the minutes of those crucial meetings, Cheney resisted and was ultimately supported by key Reagan judicial appointees, blocking efforts toward disclosure.
Following such a deadly series of events as 9/11, had Cheney been interested in learning the truth, he would have called for an independent commission to investigate what happened on that tragic day.
Instead Cheney openly opposed such an effort, arguing disingenuously that to seek answers on such a vital topic was looking backwards and that America needed instead to concentrate on stopping future attacks.
After severe pressure was applied a commission was appointed, but one political rather than independent in nature that limited the scope of the investigation and the number of witnesses, dispensing with key FBI whistleblowers. When Cheney appeared it was with Bush in executive session.
The 9/11 Commission's ultimate conclusion smacked of the Warren Commission appointed to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The earlier commission concluded that a lone assassin was responsible for all that occurred. The 9/11 Commission deduced that the entire operation was the work of Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda.
Cheney's cynical disregard for the truth and ruthless pursuit of vindication, it now being reported, took his lie concerning a link between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden one critical step further.
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