Shooting Whittington: the Least of Cheney’s Crimes

Kurt Nimmo | February 16 2006

I don’t care if the war criminal Dick Cheney shot one of his rich Republican friends. I am disgusted by this story dominating headlines while the Straussian neocons—who run roughshod over the Constitution in dictatorial fashion through their cardboard cut-out, brain damaged, unelected president—methodically plan to attack another sovereign nation and kill hundreds of thousands of people, poison millions of innocent others with depleted uranium, destroy and loot more antiquities, deliberately wreck hospitals, electrical plants and water and sewage treatment facilities, the same way they did in Iraq.

Harry Whittington’s gunshot wounds are nothing compared to the distinct possibility the Straussian neocons may use nuclear weapons against the people of Iran—and down the road, against other official enemies, numbering in the billions (according to the “heavy-lifter” Straussian neocon Frank Gaffney, these enemies include the people of China, Russia, and “anti-American” countries in Latin America, in other words Latin American countries that have rejected neoliberalism and are sick and tired of globalist bankers and multinational carpetbaggers stealing their natural resources and impoverishing their people).

Katherine Brengle documents how Cheney considers himself above the law, bird hunting without proper legal documentation. For some reason we are supposed to be upset about this. Meanwhile, right out in the open and yet ignored, there is a bundle of damning evidence that makes the Cheney hunting incident pale by way of comparison: Cheney the scurrilous war profiteer, his advocacy of the use of torture by the CIA, Powell’s chief of staff Lawrence Wilkerson’s accusations that Cheney disdainfully violated the Geneva Conventions.

Cheney’s war crimes have besmirched the public record for over a decade and a half—it was Cheney, as Secretary of War in the Bush Senior administration, who engineered and instigated a 43-day bombing campaign against Iraq (the most devastating concentrated bombing attack in history at the time), a blitzkrieg that targeted Iraqi electrical, water, and sewage treatment systems, resulting in massive civilian casualties, especially children, the elderly, and the sick, in short the most vulnerable of Iraqi society, a particularly horrendous war crime.

“So, what did Cheney have to say about these choices of targets after the war, when there was no way to deny the deadly effects on civilians?” asked Robert Jensen, writing for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “Every Iraqi target was ‘perfectly legitimate,’ … adding ‘if I had to do it over again, I would do exactly the same thing.’” In short, Cheney is not only a war criminal, he is an unrepentant war criminal, an anti-human sociopath who brags about his serial murdering exploits. All of this is scrupulously avoided in the corporate media.

Meanwhile, Straussian neocon provocations, far more worthy of headlines and analysis, are relegated below the fold.

An Australian TV show has revealed “terrible photographs” of Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse, “bloodier and more sexually charged than the originals” (if you wish to stomach such sadism, follow this Rolling Stone link and watch a video montage).

It is hardly a coincidence these new photos were released as “rioting erupted … as tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Pakistan’s third straight day of violent protests over the Prophet Muhammad cartoons. Three people were killed, including an 8-year-old boy,” according to ABC News. As suspected, these riots are well organized, although specifics are absent (asking the question “who benefits” usually settles the issue). “An Associated Press reporter in Lahore saw crowd members who appeared to be orchestrating the attacks, directing protesters—some of whom were carrying containers of kerosene—toward particular targets. The demonstrators also set the provincial government assembly building on fire,” Asif Shahzad writes for the Chicago Sun Times.

Speaking of kerosene and fires—at least in a metaphorical sense—Roberto Calderoli, Italian Reforms Minister and member of the neocon friendly Lega Nord (Northern League), has declared his intention “to wear a T-shirt sporting cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that have sparked violent reactions from Muslims around the world,” reports the Mail & Guardian, thus inflaming Muslim anger even more.

It now appears there is a possibility Cheney may be charged with criminal “negligence, defined as failing to understand the dangers involved and disregarding them, or recklessness, defined as understanding the dangers and disregarding them” if Whittington dies from injuries sustained in the so-called hunting mishap, according to the New York Times.

Shooting Whittington, of course, is the least of Cheney’s crimes, and if indeed justice prevailed in the world he would be immediately arrested for the above enumerated crimes, tried before a jury of his peers, convicted like Nazi war criminals of yore, allowed a one appeal, and then marched to the gallows. Of course, this will not happen, not any more than he will suffer serious consequence from the criminal negligence of shooting Harry M. Whittington at close range with bird shot.