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http://content.usatoday.com/communi...2/cheney-rips-obama-over-iran-drone-capture/1
Cheney rips Obama over Iran drone capture
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By David Jackson, USA TODAY
Updated
Iran's capture of a U.S. surveillance drone has revived the feud between President Obama and former Vice President Dick Cheney.
Cheney criticized Obama for merely asking Iran to return the drone, telling Erin Burnett of CNN last night that he should have ordered a air strike to destroy the U.S. spy plane; the vice president for George W. Bush also suggested he has sources who say Obama rejected a recommendation for such a strike.
"The right response to that would have been to go in immediately after it had gone down and destroy it," Cheney said. " You can do that from the air. You can do that with a quick airstrike, and, in effect, make it impossible for them to benefit from having captured that drone."
Cheney also said:
"I was told that the president had three options on his desk. He rejected all of them.
"They all involved sending somebody in, you know, to try to recover it or -- if you can't do that, and admittedly, that'd be a difficult operation -- you certainly could have gone in and destroyed it on the ground with an air strike.
But he didn't take any of the options. He asked nicely for them to return it and they aren't gonna do that."
Obama and aides have declined to comment in detail on the drone case, citing national security concerns.
Asked about the incident yesterday, Obama said:
With respect to the drone inside of Iran, I'm not going to comment on intelligence matters that are classified.
As has already been indicated, we have asked for it back. We'll see how the Iranians respond.
Cheney rips Obama over Iran drone capture
Comments
Share
By David Jackson, USA TODAY
Updated
Iran's capture of a U.S. surveillance drone has revived the feud between President Obama and former Vice President Dick Cheney.
Cheney criticized Obama for merely asking Iran to return the drone, telling Erin Burnett of CNN last night that he should have ordered a air strike to destroy the U.S. spy plane; the vice president for George W. Bush also suggested he has sources who say Obama rejected a recommendation for such a strike.
"The right response to that would have been to go in immediately after it had gone down and destroy it," Cheney said. " You can do that from the air. You can do that with a quick airstrike, and, in effect, make it impossible for them to benefit from having captured that drone."
Cheney also said:
"I was told that the president had three options on his desk. He rejected all of them.
"They all involved sending somebody in, you know, to try to recover it or -- if you can't do that, and admittedly, that'd be a difficult operation -- you certainly could have gone in and destroyed it on the ground with an air strike.
But he didn't take any of the options. He asked nicely for them to return it and they aren't gonna do that."
Obama and aides have declined to comment in detail on the drone case, citing national security concerns.
Asked about the incident yesterday, Obama said:
With respect to the drone inside of Iran, I'm not going to comment on intelligence matters that are classified.
As has already been indicated, we have asked for it back. We'll see how the Iranians respond.
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