Staff Reporter | Posted March 23, 2009 11:39 AM
President
Barack Obama struck back at criticism from former Vice President Dick
Cheney this weekend in an interview broadcast on CBS's "60 Minutes."
Cheney had argued that the closing of the Guantanamo detention center in Cuba would make America more vulnerable to attack, but Obama dismissed that criticism in an interview with CBS's Steve Kroft.
"I fundamentally disagree with Dick Cheney," Obama said. "Not surprisingly. You know, I think that Vice President Cheney has been at the head of a movement whose notion is somehow that we can't reconcile our core values, our Constitution, our belief that we don't torture, with our national security interests. I think he's drawing the wrong lesson from history."
Obama also challenged the Bush administration's argument that its extra-judicial detention policies were necessary to protect America. "The facts don't bear him out," the president said, adding that Cheney's philosophy "has done incredible damage to our image and position in the world."
After all these years how many convictions actually came out of Guantanamo?" Obama asked Kroft rhetorically. "How many terrorists have actually been brought to justice under the philosophy that is being promoted by Vice President Cheney?"
President Obama flatly argued that the Bush approach "hasn't made us safer" and has instead become "a great advertisement for anti-American sentiment. Which means that there is constant effective recruitment of Arab fighters and Muslim fighters against U.S. interests all around the world."
See interview below.
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