Obama: Our mission in Afghanistan is to prevent another 9/11

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http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2009/03/23/obama-our-central-missi on-in-afghanistan-is-to-prevent-another-al-qaeda-attack-on-the-us-home land-videos/



Obama: Our central mission in Afghanistan is to prevent another al Qaeda attack on the U.S. homeland


1) Barack Obama’s interview on CBS (22 March 2009)
2) Dick Cheney’s interview on CNN (15 March 2009)

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STEVE KROFT: Afghanistan … What-- what should that mission be?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Making sure that al Qaeda cannot attack the U.S. homeland and U.S. interests and our allies. That's our number one priority. […] [W]e can't lose sight of what our central mission is. The same mission that we had when we went in after 9/11. And that is these folks can project violence against the United States' citizens. And that is something that we cannot tolerate. […] (I)t is not acceptable for us to simply sit back and let safe havens of terrorists plan and plot.


[US President Barack Obama, CBS’ “60 Minutes” interview, 22 March 2009] [1]

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KING: [...] Well, since taking office, President Obama has done these things to change the policies you helped put in place. He has announced he will close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. He has announced he will close CIA black sites around the world, where they interrogate terror suspects. Says he will make CIA interrogators abide by the Army Field Manual, defined waterboarding as torture and ban it, suspend trials for terrorists by military commission, and now eliminate the label of enemy combatants.

I’d like to just simply ask you, yes or no, by taking those steps, do you believe the president of the United States has made Americans less safe?

CHENEY: I do. I think those programs were absolutely essential to the success we enjoyed of being able to collect the intelligence that let us defeat all further attempts to launch attacks against the United States since 9/11. I think that’s a great success story. It was done legally. It was done in accordance with our constitutional practices and principles.

President Obama campaigned against it all across the country. And now he is making some choices that, in my mind, will, in fact, raise the risk to the American people of another attack.


[Former US Vice President Dick Cheney, CNN’s “State of the Union with John King” interview, 15 March 2009] [2]

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Notes:


[1] excerpts from: 60 Minutes transcript

Politico, 22 March 2009

http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=3068DD82-18FE-70B2-A892531 324214E6D


[2] excerpt from: Transcript: DICK Cheney Interview with CNN’s John King – Cheney Says Obama Choices Create Risk

Clips & Comment, 15 March 2009

http://www.clipsandcomment.com/2009/03/15/transcript-dick-cheney-inter view-with-cnns-john-king-cheney-says-obama-choices-create-risk/

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