In Cheney's estimation, America had become weak, soft and perhaps even too good for its own good. There were too many civil liberties, too many rights for defendants and criminals constraining the hands of America's defenders. Taken out of context, it may seem that Cheney's beliefs were unfounded and that men like Addington and Yoo were extremists bent on taking down the Constitution.
But after the attacks, as disturbing information came to light about the many breakdowns and missed opportunities to address the growing Al Quaeda threat, it seemed that central cause for the massive failure of the intelligence apparatus to detect the plot was simply the failure to follow up and follow through on evidence that did come to light long before the attacks. It is eay to conclude that precisely for this reason Cheney believed that America had become weak by being too generous with liberties and rights — after all, only in a nation that was undisciplined and weak could actionable threat intelligence be dismissed. Only in a country that had lost its street smarts in a dangerous world, becoming soft and naïve, could those charged with its security fall asleep at the switch.
This “sleep” was deep indeed. When Congress refused to grant the Presidency unlimited power, even after 9/11, Cheney's men, principally Addington and Yoo, began to craft a framework that would unleash the powers of the executive to wage an unlimited war on a new enemy.
Under The New Paradigm, America's legal system was viewed as a burden, its provisions too cumbersome in a new reality and was to be dispensed with. In its place were build the foundations for a new way of dealing with enemies of a new era — preventive arrests, indefinite detentions, a legal system in parallel to the old structures, one in which there were no juries, no lawyers and no impediments to state power.
Not everyone agreed with the interpretation put forth by Cheney and his men. As the effects of their ideology were becoming clearer, pushback began from people inside the FBI, the Navy and other branches of the military to end the renditions, the “robust” interrogation, and to shut down the black sites and restore the rule of law. A struggle ensued between Cheney and his men and those who felt that they had gone too far.
Article comments