HDNet Dan Rather Reports: Cheney Regrets Iraq Invasion, Enhanced Interrogation,

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Wed Apr-01-09 11:37 AM
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HDNet Dan Rather Reports: Cheney Regrets Iraq Invasion, Enhanced Interrogation,

CHEYENNE, WY - In an interview Tuesday with Dan Rather Reports on HDNet, Former Vice President Richard Cheney admitted past mistakes and discussed suprising plans to start a charitable foundation. The interview will be aired next month on the HDNet news channel.

On Iraq, Mr. Cheney told Mr. Rather that "Our invasion of Iraq has turned out to be a mistake and we can't seem to extricate ourselves even after six years. My advice to George H.W. Bush back in 1991 turned out to be correct when I told him we should not have pushed on to Baghdad and I now regret advising George W. Bush to invade Iraq in the fall of 2002 - it's just cost us too much and we've gotten too little in return."

On Guantanmo, the former Vice President now regrets the use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" saying "after 9/11 we were desperate for any information to prevent the next attack which we believed was right around the corner and enhanced interrogation seemed to offer us a quick way out. In the longer run it has turned out to be incorrect. Around 2007 it started becoming clear to us that the intel we were receiving simply wasn't valid. By then though, I mean, how do you unwind that? It was a mistake and I regret it. I'm not sure how we fix it now though."

On global warming, the Vice President said he now has grudging admiration for the success of his predecessor, Al Gore, in bringing the issue to the public eye and has begun to believe that there is some truth to what he has to say on the environment: "All those years in the oil business had blinded me - you know you don't really want to believe that we could cause that kind of damage but now it... it looks like there's some truth to it. T. Boone Pickens and I are planning to work on investing in wind power in the Western U.S. and abroad in the near future not only for the environmental benefits but also because this appears to be the new energy boom market - it's wide open at this point."

In closing, the Vice President announced surprising plans for a charitable foundation modeled after that of Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates and investment billionaire Warren Buffett with a focus on energy issues around the globe: "I want to bring electrical power to millions of people around the globe who do not have it today and who cannot afford it. I can think of nothing that would help raise these people's standard of living more." Cheney went on to say that he admired the work of Gates and Buffett in fighting diseases like malaria in developing nations and hoped his new foundation could achieve the success of the organizations being run by former Presidents Carter and Clinton: "A lot of people have gotten a bad impression of me over the years, I'm hoping to change that with this foundation and will be dedicating my time to helping make people's lives around the world better in the future through electrification programs."

More at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Fools'_Day">hd.net/danrather.html