Cheney reaction: Interview blackout as protester waves handcuffs at ‘war criminal’
A live interview with former Vice-President Dick Cheney and his family was marred by protesters accusing him of war crimes and torture. One protester tried to ‘arrest’ the politician, but was taken away, as live video of the event went black.
Cheney made a rare appearance, together with his wife Lynne and daughter Liz, on Monday to be interviewed by Politico's Mike Allen in Washington.
The event at the Mayflower Renaissance Hotel was attended by protesters blaming Cheney for controversial policies of the Bush administration, including the invasion of Iraq and approval of waterboarding of terrorism suspects.
One of them, a woman wearing a pink sign and carrying handcuffs interrupted the interview at one point.
“Dick Cheney should be arrested for war crimes!” one protester screamed before being escorted out. “You destroyed Iraq, DC! You destroyed Iraq!”
The outburst caused Lynne Cheney to chuckle while Liz started chanting: “Four more years! Four more years!”
C-SPAN’s live stream of the event went black seconds after the camera pointed at the protester as she was escorted out.
“And we are having some problems with the feed coming to us from the Politico Playbook lunch,” a C-SPAN announcer eventually explained.
The Cheneys’ interview focused on attacking the Obama administration policies and defending those of the Bush administration.
“I believed in it then. I look back on it now, it was absolutely the right thing to do,” the former VP said with regard to the invasion of Iraq.
Critics of Cheney and the policies of the administration he served accuse him of masterminding the Iraqi invasion on a false pretext. The invasions and subsequent occupation claimed 500,000 lives of Iraqis and 4,500 of American troops and cost billions of dollars.
‘Enhanced interrogation techniques’ were used by the US against terrorism suspects in their custody. The practice amounting to torture was widely condemned by human rights groups and has since been abandoned.
