IT WAS billed as the battle of the vice-presidents. Joe Biden yesterday accused his predecessor, Dick Cheney, of rewriting history, misrepresenting facts and making “factually, substantively wrong” assertions as the White House lost patience with the Bush administration’s hawkish second-in-command.
In a stream of vitriolic assaults Mr Cheney has become by far the most outspoken alumnus of the Bush era, repeatedly complaining that the US has gone soft on terror.
Appearing on rival Sunday morning television talk shows, Mr Biden and Mr Cheney traded unusually bitter personal barbs over the US government’s handling of December’s so-called “underwear bomber”, the planned closure of Guantánamo Bay prison and plans to try an alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks at a criminal court in Manhattan.
Declaring himself “very nervous and very upset” by the direction of policy, Mr Cheney said he was unhappy with the Obama administration’s “mindset” of treating terror suspects as mere criminals.
He insisted that waterboarding, which has been banned, ought to be a tactic available to interrogators quizzing Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian man accused of trying to blow up a jet on Christmas Day. He said the possibility of one of the masterminds of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, being tried in New York was a “big mistake”.
Mr Cheney suggested the Obama administration was trying to claim unfair credit for bringing the war in Iraq to a close. And he accused the administration of being irresponsible in playing down the risks of a further terror attack on US soil.
“The biggest strategic threat the US faces today is the possibility of another 9/11 with a nuclear weapon or a biological weapon,” said the 69-year-old.
“If the mindset is it’s not likely, then it’s difficult to mobilise resources and get people to give it the priority it deserves.”
Mr Cheney’s remarks were initially motivated, according to the former vice-president, by a concern that CIA officers and others under the Bush administration’s command could face criminal prosecution for following orders.
The White House adopted a respectful tone in responding to his remarks for many months. But that changed markedly yesterday as Mr Biden, speaking from the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, hammered his predecessor’s rhetoric, in terms both combative and condescending. “I’m not trying to be facetious but maybe he’s not properly informed,” said Mr Biden, who listed a series of accomplishments: eliminating 12 of al-Qaeda’s 20 top leaders; taking out 100 of their accomplices; dispatching extra troops to Afghanistan; and stepping up “drone” attacks on Taliban militants.
“I don’t know where Dick Cheney has been,” said Mr Biden. “It’s one thing to criticise. It’s another thing to rewrite history. What is he talking about? . . . He’s factually, substantively wrong.”
The ferocity of public animosity between Mr Cheney and his successor has surprised politicians on all sides. His punditry contrasts sharply with the low profile of his former boss, George Bush, who returned to Texas after leaving office and has largely kept out of the public eye, re-emerging recently to work with Bill Clinton on directing aid towards Haiti. Mr Cheney revealed that he has not seen Mr Bush since the day the pair of them left Washington in January 2009.