Nbadan
05-23-2006, 02:33 PM
Cheney's Guy
http://www.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2005/11/13/in_sands_2.jpg
Torturer extraordinare'
He's barely known outside Washington's corridors of power, but David Addington is the most powerful man you've never heard of. Here's why:
US News & World Report
By Chitra Ragavan
5/29/06
The signing statements are just one tool that Addington and a small cadre of ultraconservative lawyers at the heart of the Bush administration are employing to prosecute the war on terrorism. Little known outside the West Wing and the inner sanctums of the CIA, the Pentagon, and the State Department, Addington is a genial colleague who also possesses an explosive temper that he does not hesitate to direct at those who oppose him. Addington, says an admiring former White House official, is "the most powerful person no one has never heard of."
Name one significant action taken by the Bush White House after 9/11, and chances are better than even that Addington had a role in it. So ubiquitous is he that one Justice Department lawyer calls Addington "Adam Smith's invisible hand" in national security matters. The White House assertion--later proved false--that Saddam Hussein tried to buy nuclear precursors from Niger to advance a banned weapons program? Addington helped vet that. The effort to discredit a former ambassador who publicly dismissed the Niger claim as baseless, by disclosing the name of his wife, a covert CIA officer? Addington was right in the middle of that, too, though he has not been accused of wrongdoing.
-Snip- (This is a 9 Page article... I took liberty of snipping the beginning and end)
As legal scholars continue to examine the government's 9/11 policies, David Addington's singular presence looms larger than ever. What is unclear, at this juncture anyway, is how history will regard him: as a legal path setter who devised innovative means to help a president defeat an unconventional enemy or as a dangerous advocate who, in pushing the envelope legally to help prosecute the war on terrorism, set U.S. foreign policy, and America's image in the world, back by decades. Even his toughest critics in the administration say Addington believes utterly that he is acting in good faith. "He thinks he's on the side of the angels," says a former Justice Department official. "And that's what makes it so scary."
US News (http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/060529/29addington_7.htm)
Addington is Cheney's alter ego and the brains for all the dreadful Bush policies. The article says they "think as one" and go back to Cheney's days in the Senate. Addington was the one who was architect of "Torture Policy, NSA Spying that went out of control, and the "Unitary Presidency."
http://www.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2005/11/13/in_sands_2.jpg
Torturer extraordinare'
He's barely known outside Washington's corridors of power, but David Addington is the most powerful man you've never heard of. Here's why:
US News & World Report
By Chitra Ragavan
5/29/06
The signing statements are just one tool that Addington and a small cadre of ultraconservative lawyers at the heart of the Bush administration are employing to prosecute the war on terrorism. Little known outside the West Wing and the inner sanctums of the CIA, the Pentagon, and the State Department, Addington is a genial colleague who also possesses an explosive temper that he does not hesitate to direct at those who oppose him. Addington, says an admiring former White House official, is "the most powerful person no one has never heard of."
Name one significant action taken by the Bush White House after 9/11, and chances are better than even that Addington had a role in it. So ubiquitous is he that one Justice Department lawyer calls Addington "Adam Smith's invisible hand" in national security matters. The White House assertion--later proved false--that Saddam Hussein tried to buy nuclear precursors from Niger to advance a banned weapons program? Addington helped vet that. The effort to discredit a former ambassador who publicly dismissed the Niger claim as baseless, by disclosing the name of his wife, a covert CIA officer? Addington was right in the middle of that, too, though he has not been accused of wrongdoing.
-Snip- (This is a 9 Page article... I took liberty of snipping the beginning and end)
As legal scholars continue to examine the government's 9/11 policies, David Addington's singular presence looms larger than ever. What is unclear, at this juncture anyway, is how history will regard him: as a legal path setter who devised innovative means to help a president defeat an unconventional enemy or as a dangerous advocate who, in pushing the envelope legally to help prosecute the war on terrorism, set U.S. foreign policy, and America's image in the world, back by decades. Even his toughest critics in the administration say Addington believes utterly that he is acting in good faith. "He thinks he's on the side of the angels," says a former Justice Department official. "And that's what makes it so scary."
US News (http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/060529/29addington_7.htm)
Addington is Cheney's alter ego and the brains for all the dreadful Bush policies. The article says they "think as one" and go back to Cheney's days in the Senate. Addington was the one who was architect of "Torture Policy, NSA Spying that went out of control, and the "Unitary Presidency."