Allen L Roland

In pursuit of the Waterboard gang, any investigation will eventually lead to the grand Inquisitor himself, Dick Cheney ~ who saw himself as the all powerful shadow president. Cheney's fingerprints will eventually be found on all executive branch abuses of power including torture and the 9/11 conspiracy or cover-up:

Make no mistake about it, to Dick Cheney and his neocon co-conspirators, the cold war never ended and continues to this day. For eight long years, it was a Cheney / Bush administration where Bush was the oblivious stooge / cheerleader while Cheney not only positioned and moved all the pieces on the grand global chess board but was also the grand Inquisitor utilizing torture, rendition and assassination when necessary to accomplish his neocon agenda.

The real issue here is Human Rights and as Karen Greenberg, TomDispatch.com, writes " One casualty of the Bush torture policies ~ certainly, at least equal in damage to those who were tortured and the country whose laws were twisted and perverted in the process ~ has been human rights itself. And no one even seems to notice." http://www.truthout.org/050109D

As I have said for years, Dick Cheney's fingerprints are on virtually every lie and abuse of power committed by the corrupt Cheney/ Bush administration. Seymour Hersh's recent revelations about an 'executive assassination ring' that reported directly to Dick Cheney is another strong indication of Dick Cheney's shadow presidency.

The Republican Party is now the party of Dick Cheney whose motto has always been ' The Natural State of Man is War ' and Cheney will officially take the party down with him when his blatant and illegal abuses of power are finally uncovered.

In 2008 Vice President Dick Cheney's shadow presidency was in full view ~ it answered to no one and that included the President. Remember, Cheney asserted in June, 2007 that his office was not a part of the executive branch of the U.S. government, and therefore not bound by a presidential order governing the protection of classified information by government agencies. http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/06/21/2021/

T.D. Allman / Rolling Stone offers the most penetrating analysis of Cheney entitled THE CURSE OF DICK CHENEY when he wrote in 2004 ~ " As vice president, Cheney was the decisive force pushing America into war. In the inner councils of the administration, it was he who emasculated Colin Powell, cut the State Department out of effective policymaking, foisted fake reports on the intelligence agencies and supplanted the National Security Council. It was also Cheney who placed appointees personally loyal to him, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, in charge of the Pentagon and speckled the warmaking bureaucracy with desk officers culled from neoconservative Washington think tanks ~ ideologues with no military experience ~ Those who have known him over the years remain astounded by what they describe as his almost autistic indifference to the thoughts and feelings of others" http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story?id=6450422

It's time to unmask America's Darth Vader and, in the process, exorcize this dark chapter of American history.

Gary Kamiya, Salon, calls it America's Necessary Dark Night of the Soul for a legitimate investigation " would force citizens to examine their own conscience, their own attitudes, their own emotions and where those emotions led. And by calling for appropriate justice for those officials who, in cold blood, lied about war, created secret prisons, trashed the Constitution, and tortured, an investigation would make clear to every American that some lines can never be crossed." http://www.salon.com/opinion/kamiya/2009/05/01/torture_investigations/index.html?source=newsletter

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Allen L Roland http://blogs.salon.com/0002255/2009/04/28.html Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com ) Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net
Cartoon courtesy of Pat Oliphant / Washington Post