Am I the only one calling shenanigans on Cheney's "assassination attempt?"

[meldroc]

Face it. It's not that hard for Cheney to have a couple toadies set off some explosives at a safe distance.

I'm suspecting the whole incident's staged so Cheney can say "Those terrarists are out of control - we must take Stronger Measures..."

I became especially suspicious when I heard Bush wasn't woken up from his beauty sleep in the aftermath.

FEAR!!! FEAR!!! FEAR!!!

[originalpckelly]

1. I think you are the only one.

Sorry.

[KoKo]

32. Well...a stratigic bomb assassination attempt just might gain sympathy

for Cheney hear at home given the Jury is in deliberations. And, it would be very easy for Govt. Ops at the Pentagon to either create a story or an incident.

Either way...it shows that things are going very badly. Cheney, Bush and Rice have to fly in secret because they are so hated for what they have done. And....it appears they must enjoy behaving like "spooks" because their policies keep ramping up the very reasons they fly in secret.

[madokie]

37. I'm a thinking that they will continue, if not stopped, until they can't leave the bunker

thats their nature

[bryant69]

2. Yes you are the only one

The only one wise enough to make this assertion.. The only one at DU and possibly in the whole world.

Do you have any evidence for your theory?

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[meldroc]

4. No evidence

Just a hunch.

And the absolute certainty that someone like Cheney is not beneath pulling a stunt like this if he thinks he can get something out of it.

[Kelly Rupert]

10. What would he get out of it?

The administration has no interest in saving Afghanistan. They don't even have any interest in sending the checks they promised five years ago.

[meldroc]

23. Fear is what he gets out of it.

Increase the fear level in general, and that many more members of the public drink his Kool-Aid. Maybe he wants a surge in Afghanistan as well as Iraq.

[Kelly Rupert]

25. Afghanistan is of no importance to Bush and Cheney.

First, that should be obvious given the neglect the Afghan people have received from Washington over the last four years. Secondly, it really is of no geopolitical importance.

Iraq, on the other hand, is crucial. With the Sunni/Shi'a/Kurd divides in Iraq, as well as its oil reserves and its central location, the future of Iraq has grave implications for the entire Middle East. PNAC's plan requires a stable, free-market Iraq.

In comparison, Afghanistan is worthless. There are two reasons to fix Afghanistan: humanitarian, and al-Qaeda. Anyone who thinks this administration is motivated by the former is not paying attention. The latter is really not that much of a threat, and given the administration's reluctance to do anything substantive (that is, besides election-year tough-talk and showy inconveniences of the TSA type) I would say that they realize that.

[Judi Lynn]

29. And it his trip was not common knowledge, by ANY means there, just as

_Bush's trips to dangerous areas are scheduled to arrive when absolutely NO ONE outside the military needed to assist knows about it. He has even landed in the middle of the night, hasn't he?

They are having a credibility problem, which they SHOULD have had from the first. They are probably attempting to make themselves look more important, if "furriners" would "risk their own lives" to get to them.

[Kelly Rupert]

First of all, Cheney is undeniably important.

There are many things that Cheney is not. However, despite all his perception problems, he has never been accused of being unimportant. He does not need an attempt on his life to validate him. The man is undeniably important, and a successful attempt on his life would be a shock to the nation.

Secondly, unless there were absolutely zero Afghans who were aware that an American dignitary would be visiting, there is the obvious possibility of a leak. Afghanistan is not a stable government. There are factions, and factions within factions, all of which are armed, and the Taliban has many supporters throughout Kabul.

[KoKo]

33. Sympathy from the Dark Forces who still try to support him but are losing ground

with the American People. A signal that the terrorists are now trying to kill our VP is a message they would hope would rally their Dark Force troops here at home.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

3. Officer Barbrady is too

I heard.

That makes 2 of you nuts.

[Donnachaidh]

5. I was thinking that myself

Think about it -- Darth is desperately flying around, trying to keep things together. And he's so out of touch he really thinks he still has respect from the majority of Americans.

What better way to *fire up* the 20 percenters than have some jihadist trying to *take out* the VP?
Yeah, it's a childish thought -- but it's just the sort of thing O'Loofah and Hammity would run with.

[Kelly Rupert]

18. Your thought is that

he thinks the majority of Americans are with him, so he decides he needs to fire up the minority who are still with him by staging an attempt on his life, on a trip in which he intended to highlight his successes in the region?

That doesn't really fit together. He's an evil son of a bitch, but there's just no reason to cry wolf here.

[ScreamingMeemie]

6. His idiotic trip cost the lives of 23 people either way.

[underpants]

26. He is a human death cloud n/t

[babylonsister]

7. Nope, you're not alone. nt

[Kelly Rupert]

8. I'm pretty sure you're about the only one.

Unless you believe that the situation in Afghanistan is absolutely peachy-keen and the Taliban is totally dealt with, in which case you have far more confidence in this administration's ability and truthfulness than I do.

[StrictlyRockers]

9. No way. Shenanigans!!

The whole thing was a staged photo op minus an explosion. Of course they know how much Cheney is hated world wide. (Did you see the riots in Australia?) So they play it up find a way to make hay out of his unpopularity by staging an assassination attempt.

Yes, I do have some tinfoil left over for you. Here. Make sure you cover your ears, too, or the mother ship can still hear your thoughts.

Who knows at this point...

SR



:tinfoilhat:

[Kelly Rupert]

14. So you're saying that there's no possibility

that an especially high-ranking, especially hated American might be subject to an assassination attempt an an extremely volitile part of the world, in which the Taliban, al-Qaeda, and numerous warlords still ravage the countryside? That such an event could only be a conspiracy--despite such an event undercutting the administration's claims that Afghanistan is a success story?

[meldroc]

20. Possible...

The timing's way too convenient. I thought Darth Cheney's itinerary was supposed to be secret.

[Kelly Rupert]

24. The timing is terrible.

The last thing this administration wants is for the American people to realize that Afghanistan is backsliding--they have enough problems with Iraq as it is. Why would they want another failure to be highlighted?

As for the secrecy of the itinerary, Afghanistan hardly has a stable government. Between Taliban sympathizers and nationalist/Islamist anti-American factions in Kabul and an endless array of warlords trying to out-maneuver each other, I do not find a leak out of the question.

[treestar]

35. What was he even doing there?

What possible reason could there be for him going to Afghanistan. Making deals about oil pipelines?

That's what makes me most suspicious. Why send him to such a place? There's nothing he could do there that an underling could not have done.

[sabra]

11. it's a pattern though, same thing happened when Cheney shot the lawyer

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0219-28.htm

<snip<

And when Bush does find out, several hours after the shooting, he is told by his political svengali Karl Rove, who has heard from one of the owners of the ranch where Cheney shot Whittington. Rove tells Bush that maybe it's best for the President to leave the mess to Cheney and go to bed.

So the President of the most powerful country in the world goes to sleep without calling the second-most powerful man in the world to ask him what the hell happened.

[meldroc]

15. Fixed:

So the President of the most powerful country in the world goes to sleep without calling the second-most powerful man in the world to ask him what the hell happened.

FTFY. :tinfoilhat:

[Bluzmann57]

12. Well here we go

Someone had to say it. You are probably not the only one calling "shenanigans" but I think, and hope, the majority of us aren't. I believe that it was a symbolic attempt by terrorists, just to let Cheney know that they were around.

[AlCzervik]

13. why would Cheney's toadies want to highlight how bad things in Afghanistan are?

how is that a win for the bush administration?

[Balbus]

16. No, I'm sure you're not the only insane person in the world.

[Dr.Phool]

17. As a poster in another thread asked,

How is it that the Taliban knows Cheney's schedule, and the American people don't?

[Kelly Rupert]

21. The Taliban undoubtedly has many informants

inside the Afghan government. In a nation ruled by a coalition of warlords jockeying for position, there probably aren't many secrets.

[catmandu57]

39. Seeing AF2 flying into Kabul

it wouldn't take Sherlock Holmes to connect the dots that an important american had just blew into town. They may not have known who it was, but, there has to be a limited number of places a high ranking yankee would be sleeping at.
I don't think it would have been too much trouble to load a bomb up and make it go boom.

[laruemtt]

19. twas the first thing i thought, actually.

i believe nada where they're concerned.

[Ian David]

22. I think Al Quaeda was just hunting for quail. n/t

[Kelly Rupert]

28. lol! n/t

[meldroc]

27. OK, I'll concede.

It probably was the Taliban, though like I said, I put absolutely nothing beneath that psychopathic son of a bitch.

[area51]

30. Nope. (n/t)

[subterranean]

31. You're not the only one.

My first thought was something along those lines. I think it's possible that there was an explosion nearby, Dick got scared, and they decided to portray it as an assassination attempt against him. Why? I don't know, maybe to try to generate a little sympathy for Cheney and make him seem human. Remember, these people (the bush administration) lie about EVERYTHING.

[lectrobyte]

38. Yes, they seem to go out of their way to lie when they don't have to.

Like that story about AF1 encountering a British Airways airliner on the way to the plastic turkey photo op a few years ago.

[subterranean]

40. Good point,

And that whole story turned out to be fabricated. You can't take anything they say at face value.

[treestar]

34. No, anything these SOBs do should at least be viewed with suspicion

and investigated.

[dflprincess]

36. Let me adjust my tinfoil and then say

Meldroc's theory is one possibility. My first thought was "Bushco missed." :tinfoilhat: Flame away.