Liz Cheney is No Innocent Bystander. She Was Dick's Mole in the State Department on the Middle East.

BUZZFLASH EDITOR'S BLOG

By Mark Karlin

It's all supposed to be very touching, a loving daughter defending her father against slanderous, defaming partisan accusations.

Now that Dick Cheney has once again retreated to an "undisclosed location," his only ubiquitous vocal defender appears to be one of his daughters, Liz, who has herself indicated that she is interested in a political future.

But Liz Cheney may have more than paternalistic protectiveness in her heart, because Liz was part of her father's foreign policy operation when he was vice-president.

Indeed, Liz Cheney served two stints in the State Department while Dick was up to his illegal and largely still unknown secretive actions.  And she wasn't stationed at the Iceland desk. She had responsibilities directly related to "diplomacy" in the Middle East.

In 2002, Liz was appointed to the "vacant" position of Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern [Middle-Eastern] Affairs.  In 2005, after taking time off from the State Department to work on her father's re-election, she was named Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State For Near Eastern Affairs. In 2006, Liz became the head of the State Department Iran Syria Policy and Operations Group.

On a personal note for Liz, what makes all of this even more incestuous in terms of who knew and did what and when, Liz is married to one Philip Perry, who served in the Bush/Cheney administration as the General Counsel of the United States Department of Homeland Security.

So it strains the credibility of Liz's media "defense of Dad" tour when you know that she was a player in Middle Eastern policy, and likely spoke frequently with her father about issues relating to that region and what he was up to -- and that the issue of what she also knew and when she knew it is relevant in judging her believability, although not necessarily criminal on her part.

But it sure does taint her "daughter dearest" defense of her father to remember that she may have been an advisor, confidante, and implementer of some of his more unsavory policies -- not that she assassinated anyone.

In fact, it's important to remember that the latest Dick Cheney revelation about ordering the CIA not to reveal a secret program to Congress (which is illegal) is only one in an uncountable number of likely illegal actions while he was vice-president.  The increasingly short news cycles and a mainstream media with a historical attention span of about two hours tends to make us forget that this is not an isolated incident.

If there's anyone who likely knows that -- because she probably knows about much of the truth -- it's Liz Cheney.  Only her father, David Addington and Scooter Libby might know more.

BUZZFLASH EDITOR'S BLOG