Lizzie Cheney throws another tantrum..

This woman is not only a liar, she is certifiable, seriously. The context is the latest revelation that Cheney had a bit of a side project as NOT the POTUS:

"A secret Central Intelligence Agency initiative terminated by Director Leon Panetta was an attempt to carry out a 2001 presidential authorization to capture or kill al Qaeda operatives, according to former intelligence officials familiar with the matter." (WSJ)

"Former Vice President Dick Cheney directed the CIA eight years ago not to inform Congress about a nascent counterterrorism program that CIA Director Leon Panetta terminated in June, officials with direct knowledge of the matter said Saturday." (AP)

Forgive me if I am a bit skeptical that the WSJ has identified this program as only targeting members of al Qaeda. The fact that Liz Cheney references this particular article (see below) is reason enough for me. I have seen Dick Cheney do this over and over when he wanted to direct information flow. We saw him do this with Judith Miller's articles, for example. So here is Lizzie's reaction to the latest news (h/t Think Progress):

CHENEY: There’s this big piece in the Wall Street Journal this morning that says that it was a number of different concepts for ways that we could capture or kill al Qaeda leaders in the days after 9/11. I am really surprised that the Democrats decide that that’s what they want to fight over. I mean, if they want to go to the American people and say that they disagree with the notion that we ought to be capturing and killing al Qaeda leaders, I think it’s just going to prove to the American people one more time why they can’t trust the Democrats with our national security.

Well, where to begin? How about with a quick reminder of the Cheney national security legacy. 9/11 happened on her daddy's watch, so national security is not really a Cheney strong point. Then, instead of going after al Qaeda, daddy Cheney invaded Iraq, jeopardizing our military action against the Taliban in Afghanistan, depleting our military and financial resources in the process, and alienating the US from other countries whose help we need. Of course outing a covert CIA officer was also a bit of a problem for our national security. So daddy Cheney not only failed in protecting this nation, he actually put us in more danger.

Now that we have gotten that out of the way, the other major issue I have with Lizzie's latest song and dance is that she is using the same meme as the one she used in defense of her daddy's torture program. She is speculating (because she does not have the clearances to know for sure) that al Qaeda leaders were the target, the ONLY target, of her daddy's hit team. Just like she has strongly defended (without knowing for sure obviously) that her daddy's torture program only targeted terrorists who were going to kill us. Of course we all know the many innocent people who were captured, detained, tortured, never charged, and finally released.

She is using the al Qaeda card because she thinks that the public is not going to be interested in investigating Cheney's private murder operation if the only targets were real, honest to goodness terrorists. Or shorter=fear card.

And what did Sy Hersh tell us?

"It’s an executive assassination ring essentially, and it’s been going on and on and on," Hersh stated. "Under President Bush’s authority, they’ve been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving. That’s been going on, in the name of all of us."

Right. And what would someone like Cheney do with this kind of power? We need to know, despite Lizzie's tantrums and unresolved Electra complex.