The_Info_Web/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Dick Cheney.md

category	aliases	tags	summary	born	died	location	relations	created	updated
Political Figure	Richard Cheney Richard B. Cheney Richard Bruce Cheney Dick Cheney	Person WhiteHouse RockefellerCommission IranContra Halliburton KelloggBrownRoot ContinuityOfGovernment Plame Surveillance Detainees	Ford's chief of staff who edited the Rockefeller Commission report in 1975, co-author of the Iran-Contra minority report, Secretary of Defense, Halliburton chief executive and Vice President from 2001 to 2009.	1941-01-30	2025-11-03	Casper, Wyoming	type with role start end fn employed_by White House deputy assistant to the president, then chief of staff 1974 1977 1 type with role start end fn reported_to Donald Rumsfeld deputy to Rumsfeld while Rumsfeld was White House chief of staff 1975 1975 2 type with role start end fn participant_in Rockefeller Commission 1975 White House editor of the commission's draft report 1975-06 1975-06 3 type with role start end fn head_of Department of Defense Secretary of Defense 1989 1993 1 type with role start end fn head_of Halliburton chief executive 1995-10 2000 15 type with role start end fn participant_in Iran-Contra Affair House Republican on the investigating committees; signed the minority views 1987-11 1987-11 9 type with reverse role start fn investigated Senate Select Committee on Intelligence true 2008 report on prewar public statements by Bush and Cheney 2008-06-05 32 type with role start fn participant_in Cheney v. United States District Court petitioner, Vice President 2004-06-24 27 type with fn spouse_of Lynne Cheney 36	2026-09-22	2026-10-15

Richard Bruce Cheney was born in Lincoln, Nebraska on January 30, 1941, and grew up in Casper, Wyoming. He was a congressional fellow in 1968, worked at the Office of Economic Opportunity and the Cost of Living Council, and was a vice president of the investment firm Bradley, Woods & Co. from 1973 to 1974. He was deputy assistant to President Gerald R. Ford in 1974 and 1975 and his chief of staff from 1975 to 1977. He represented Wyoming in the United States House of Representatives from January 3, 1979, until March 17, 1989, was Secretary of Defense from 1989 to 1993, was chief executive of Halliburton from 1995 to 2000, and was Vice President under George W. Bush from January 20, 2001, to January 20, 2009.¹

The Rockefeller Commission Report

In June 1975, as deputy to the chief of staff, Donald Rumsfeld, Cheney led the editing of the draft report of the Rockefeller Commission 1975 on Central Intelligence Agency activities in the United States. His handwritten comments survive. The National Security Archive, which published the White House and commission files on February 29, 2016, reported "numerous edits to the report by then-deputy White House Chief of Staff Richard Cheney," and said that Cheney "led the way in 'editing' the Rockefeller report."² The section "Alleged Plans to Assassinate Certain Foreign Leaders," 86 pages long, was removed and replaced with a note that the commission had lacked time to finish the subject; language calling CIA activities "unlawful" was softened to "improper," except for the drug experiments, which were labeled "illegal"; and a recommendation that CIA employees be able to report improper activities was narrowed to orders "outside of established channels."³ The archive's account of the same edit says it replaced the commission's language on unlawful activity with language about actions that merely exceeded the agencies' statutory authority, and that the Cheney-inspired edit added recommendations the panel had not voted.² In the working copy of the report in the Ford Library file (Document 15), the chapter on mail openings keeps the conclusion that the CIA's domestic mail opening programs "were unlawful," strikes through a sentence stating that the mail-cover aspects of the projects "were not unlawful," and strikes "This was improper under the National Security Act," with handwriting added beneath it. The chapter on Operation CHAOS keeps "Some domestic activities of Operation CHAOS unlawfully exceeded the CIA's statutory authority" and strikes the sentence "These activities were improper."³

The archive reported that Cheney and White House Counsel Philip Buchen, citing concerns raised by Henry Kissinger, intervened to induce the commission's staff director, David W. Belin, to cancel a press conference on the assassination findings.² The June 5, 1975 commission section on CIA plots against foreign leaders, which covered plots against Fidel Castro and Rafael Trujillo, was not released with the final report.³ Strategy papers for the report prepared in Cheney's office in June 1975 argued that giving the Church Committee the minutes and records of covert action groups "would be an unprecedented act."³

The Holystone Memoranda, May 1975

On May 25, 1975, the New York Times published an article by Seymour Hersh on an American undersea intercept operation. Memoranda from the Cheney files show the White House response over the following week.⁴ On May 30, Donald Rumsfeld, then in Brussels, cabled Cheney asking to be told when the secretary of defense had made his recommendation to the National Security Council on whether the operation should continue. Rumsfeld wrote that the FBI investigation of the disclosure should begin soon, unless starting it would adversely affect the operation, in which case he directed that it not be initiated.⁴

The same day, Robert McFarlane of the National Security Council staff sent Cheney a memorandum marked "Holystone" giving the Defense Department position. The Navy's tentative view was that planning for continuation should go forward, and the memorandum states that "to the extent that an investigation could generate publicity leading to a Soviet reaction, an investigation is considered a bad idea." It adds that James R. Schlesinger had concurred in the Navy's position.⁵ Cheney's memorandum to Rumsfeld the same day, summarizing the McFarlane report, recommends: "Based on the above, I recommend that no investigation be launched for the time being."⁶

A May 31, 1975 memorandum in the Cheney files records that Edward Levi had instructed the criminal division and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to prepare a proposal for an investigation. It states that "we should not have an FBI investigation if there is no intention to prosecute," and that "we believe the Hersh story of May 25 is based on papers filed with the court in the Victor Marchetti case."⁷ An undated memorandum from Rex E. Lee and John C. Keeney set out the steps needed for a possible prosecution under 18 U.S.C. 793 and 798 and for a contempt citation tied to the Marchetti protective order, and named an interview with Hersh as the initial step.⁸

Iran-Contra Minority Views

As a House Republican on the Iran-Contra Affair investigating committees, Cheney signed the minority views in the committees' report of November 1987 (H. Rept. 100-433, S. Rept. 100-216). The minority views were drafted principally by the committee staffer Michael J. Malbin, whom the staff list names as minority editor and writer.⁹ They quoted Federalist No. 70 on the executive: "energy in the executive is a leading character in the definition of good government."⁹ They argued that the Constitution protects the President's ability "to persuade U.S. citizens to engage voluntarily in otherwise legal activity to serve what they consider to be the national interest. That includes trying to persuade other countries to contribute their own funds for causes both countries support. To whatever extent the Boland Amendment tried to prohibit such activity, they were clearly unconstitutional."⁹

On December 10, 1986, Cheney questioned Robert McFarlane before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence about the Boland Amendment. McFarlane testified that in the summer of 1985 he "went to considerable length to determine whether" Oliver North had violated it, and that a document search "turned up two or three inches of paper, that reported on contacts that did occur between Colonel North and myself, indeed the President and Contra leaders." The majority report wrote that in this testimony McFarlane withheld his concerns about the documents and asserted that they proved North had fully complied with the Boland Amendment.¹⁰

Secretary of Defense, 1989 to 1993

Cheney recalled in the Miller Center oral history of the George H. W. Bush presidency that "Panama was a great training experience for us as an administration. We had the opportunity to have an objective, have to use force, coordinate with the Congress, deal with the public, all of those things that come with using the force. It was really the first time we'd done it as an administration, and we learned from that." The invasion of Panama in December 1989 removed Manuel Noriega. Colin Powell, then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in the same project: "Nobody even remembers the Panama war. You don't ever hear of it. But I viewed it as the template of how we should do things."¹¹

In 1990 Cheney announced additional base closures and realignments. Public Law 101-510 provided for the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission to meet in 1991, 1993 and 1995, and the commission's 1993 report discusses the 165 bases in the Secretary's list, which was submitted to the commission on March 12, 1993, after Cheney had left office.¹²

In February 1992 the Pentagon produced a draft Defense Planning Guidance for fiscal years 1994 to 1999, dated February 18, 1992. The New York Times published excerpts in March 1992. The National Security Archive's 2008 release of declassified drafts records that the draft aimed to "prevent the reemergence of a new rival," and that I. Lewis Libby sent Cheney cover memoranda on March 20 and March 26, 1992 with revised drafts. Colin Powell and Paul Wolfowitz approved the guidance in May 1992.¹³ PBS reported that the White House ordered Cheney to rewrite the document after the leak.¹⁴ The archive records that Cheney issued a revised version in January 1993 as the "Regional Defense Strategy."¹³

Halliburton

Cheney was chief executive of Halliburton from October 1995 to 2000. The company's FY1998 annual report, filed as an amendment, lists him as chief executive officer "since October 1995."¹⁵ The House biographical directory gives "chairman and chief executive office of the Halliburton Company 1993-2000" and, in the same entry, "senior fellow, American Enterprise Institute 1993-1995."¹ Ray Hunt of Hunt Oil Company joined its board in 1998 (the 10-K/A lists a power of attorney he signed in October 1998 as a director) and went at once onto its compensation committee, which that year gave Cheney a bonus of 1.1 million dollars and restricted stock worth 1.5 million on a salary of 1.18 million.¹⁶ Halliburton, which acquired Dresser Industries in 1998, reported in the same filing that since 1976 approximately 190,000 claims had been filed against current and former Dresser divisions and subsidiaries alleging injury from inhaled asbestos fibers.¹⁵

On August 3, 2004, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced enforcement actions against Halliburton, its former chief financial officer, Gary V. Morris, and its former controller, Robert C. Muchmore Jr., over the company's failure to disclose a 1998 change to its accounting practice. The commission said Halliburton's public statements about its 1998 and 1999 income were materially misleading. Halliburton agreed to a cease-and-desist order and to a $7.5 million penalty. The release stated that "the company's former Chief Executive Officer, Vice President Richard B. Cheney, provided sworn testimony and cooperated willingly and fully in the investigation."¹⁷

Halliburton's former subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR) pleaded guilty in February 2009 in federal court in Houston, Texas to a five-count criminal information and agreed to pay $402 million in criminal fines. Halliburton and KBR jointly agreed to pay $177 million in forfeited profits to the SEC in a concurrent civil action, for a combined $579 million. The bribes were paid to officials of the Nigeria government from 1995 until 2004 to win contracts to build liquefied natural gas facilities on Bonny Island, valued at more than $6 billion.¹⁸ The payments began in 1995, the year Cheney became chief executive, and continued until 2004.

The Army's Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP) had been created in 1985; in 1992 its concept was changed to a single, centrally managed worldwide planning and services contract, and on August 3, 1992, during Cheney's tenure as Secretary of Defense, Brown and Root Services Corporation of Houston was awarded the contract competitively, a cost-plus-award-fee contract for one year with four option years. The United States Army Corps of Engineers has administered it since 1992. Four companies competed, and a Commerce Business Daily notice drew 37 requests for the solicitation.¹⁹

On December 11, 2003, the Defense Contract Audit Agency issued a draft audit concluding that KBR had overcharged by up to $61 million for fuel imported into Iraq from Kuwait between May and September 2003 under the Restore Iraqi Oil contract; on January 15, 2004, the agency asked the Pentagon's inspector general to consider a formal investigation after finding "suspected irregularities."²⁰ Bunnatine Greenhouse, the Army Corps of Engineers' senior procurement executive, told the Senate Democratic Policy Committee on June 27, 2005 that "the abuse related to contracts awarded to KBR represents the most blatant and improper contract abuse I have witnessed during the course of my professional career." She testified that the Office of the Secretary of Defense controlled the award of the Restore Iraqi Oil contract, that she had written on the justification and approval document a caution against extending the noncompetitive effort beyond one year, that the commander of the Corps waived KBR's requirement to provide cost and pricing data about a week after the December 2003 audit without her approval, and that on October 6, 2004 she was notified that she would be removed from the Senior Executive Service and from her contracting post.²¹

Continuity of Government

In 2008 Jane Mayer wrote in The Dark Side (Mayer book) that during the 1980s Cheney, then a Republican congressman from Wyoming, took part in one of the classified continuity-of-government programs of the Ronald Reagan administration. "Every year, usually during congressional recesses, Cheney would disappear in the dead of the night." Along with "some four or five dozen federal officials," Cheney "would pretend for several weeks to be chief of staff to a designated substitute 'president,' bivouacked in some remote location in the United States."²²

Mayer wrote that a secret executive order signed by Reagan established "a means of re-creating the executive branch without informing Congress," and that Cheney "was evidently unperturbed by this oversight." She wrote that "Mann and others have suggested that these doomsday drills were a dress rehearsal for Cheney's calm, commanding performance on 9/11," citing James Mann's account of the neoconservatives in The Vulcans. Her excerpt describes an eyewitness diary that recorded Cheney's conduct in the Presidential Emergency Operations Center on September 11, 2001.²² Andrew Cockburn wrote in his 2007 book on Donald Rumsfeld that Rumsfeld "loved these games" and that "[t]here were others who were frequent players in the exercises, notably Dick Cheney," quoting a former Pentagon official: "Cheney and the others often had other priorities. Rumsfeld always came."²³

Vice President, 2001 to 2009

On September 16, 2001, Cheney appeared on Meet the Press with Tim Russert, broadcast from Camp David. The official White House transcript records: "We also have to work, though, sort of the dark side, if you will. We've got to spend time in the shadows in the intelligence world. A lot of what needs to be done here will have to be done quietly, without any discussion, using sources and methods that are available to our intelligence agencies, if we're going to be successful."²⁴

The 9/11 Commission records that the Secret Service ordered Cheney to the shelter beneath the White House after American Airlines Flight 77 turned south at 9:34 a.m., and that he entered the tunnel to the shelter at 9:37.²⁵ The commission concluded that Cheney "arrived in the room shortly before 10:00, perhaps at 9:58." Cheney told the commission that he called the President to discuss the rules of engagement for a combat air patrol over Washington, and that the President "signed off" on the concept that pilots could shoot down a plane that would not divert. The report states that the President "emphasized to us that he had authorized the shootdown of hijacked aircraft."²⁵ When a military aide reported an aircraft 80 miles out, between 10:10 and 10:15, the commission reports that the Vice President "authorized fighter aircraft to engage the inbound plane." Scooter Libby described the reaction as quick and decisive, "in about the time it takes a batter to decide to swing." White House deputy chief of staff Joshua Bolten suggested that Cheney confirm the order with the President, and the report logs the call at 10:18.²⁵

On January 29, 2001, President Bush established the National Energy Policy Development Group with Cheney as chairman. The Government Accountability Office (then the General Accounting Office) demanded its records on July 18, 2001, reported to Congress on August 17, 2001 that the Vice President had persisted in refusing, and on February 22, 2002 sued for them, the first time it had used its statutory authority to sue an executive branch entity.²⁶ Judicial Watch and the Sierra Club also sued under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, and the case reached the Supreme Court as Cheney v. United States District Court. The group had issued its final report five months after its creation. On June 24, 2004, Justice Anthony Kennedy delivered the opinion of the Court, which vacated the decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and remanded the case, reported at 334 F.3d 1096.²⁷

On August 26, 2002, in a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Nashville, Tennessee, Cheney said that during the spring of 1995 inspectors were on the verge of declaring Iraq's chemical weapons and missile programs accounted for, "[t]hen Saddam's son-in-law suddenly defected and began sharing information," and that "[t]hat should serve as a reminder to all that we often learned more as the result of defections than we learned from the inspection regime itself."²⁸ The son-in-law was Hussein Kamel. The record of his debriefing by Rolf Ekeus of UNSCOM and the International Atomic Energy Agency on August 22, 1995 has Kamel saying: "All weapons - biological, chemical, missile, nuclear were destroyed."²⁹

I. Lewis Libby, Cheney's chief of staff, was indicted on October 28, 2005, in the CIA leak investigation of the disclosure of the identity of Valerie Plame, a CIA officer. At the press conference announcing the indictment, special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald said: "We make no allegation that the Vice President committed any criminal act."³⁰ Libby was sentenced on June 22, 2007 to 30 months' imprisonment, two years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine. On July 2, 2007, President Bush commuted the prison term to expire immediately and left the supervised release and the rest of the sentence in effect.³¹

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence's report of June 5, 2008, on prewar public statements, found that "statements by the President and the Vice President indicating that Saddam Hussein was prepared to give weapons of mass destruction to terrorist groups for attacks against the United States were contradicted by available intelligence information." It also found that statements "by President Bush and Vice President Cheney regarding the postwar situation in Iraq . . . did not reflect the concerns and uncertainties expressed in the intelligence products."³²

The Senate Armed Services Committee's inquiry into the treatment of detainees, dated November 20, 2008, records that the Office of Legal Counsel's opinions of August 1, 2002 were issued "after consultation with senior Administration attorneys, including then White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales and then-Counsel to the Vice President David Addington."³³

The Inspectors General of the Justice, Defense, Central Intelligence Agency, NSA and Office of the Director of National Intelligence reviewed the President's Surveillance Program under Title III of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008. Their unclassified report of July 10, 2009 states that "[c]ertain senior officials either declined or did not respond to our requests to be interviewed for this review, including Counsel to the Vice President David Addington."³⁴

Allegations

Cathy O'Brien, who describes herself as a survivor of Project Monarch mind control, named Cheney among officials she said abused her, in Trance Formation of America (1995, with Mark Phillips). Her claims about named officials are uncorroborated.³⁵

Death

Cheney died on Monday, November 3, 2025, at the age of 84, according to a statement from his family.³⁶ The family wrote that "his beloved wife of 61 years, Lynne, his daughters, Liz and Mary, and other family members were with him as he passed," and that "the former vice president died due to complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease."³⁷ George W. Bush called his death "a loss to the nation and a sorrow to his friends."³⁶

Footnotes

---

1. U.S. House of Representatives, History, Art and Archives, "CHENEY, Richard Bruce." https://history.house.gov/People/Detail/10884 ↩︎

2. Prados, John, and Arturo Jimenez-Bacardi, eds. "Gerald Ford White House Altered Rockefeller Commission Report in 1975; Removed Section on CIA Assassination Plots." National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 543, February 29, 2016, narrative and introduction. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/intelligence/2016-02-29/gerald-ford-white-house-altered-rockefeller-commission-report ↩︎

3. Same briefing book, Document 15 (Richard Cheney, handwritten comments on draft Rockefeller Commission report, c. June 1975; Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, Richard Cheney Files, Box 8, "Intelligence - Rockefeller Commission Report - Working Copy"), Document 18 (briefing book, c. June 4, 1975, Richard Cheney Files, Box 8, strategy for the Church Committee requests) and Document 19 (the Commission section "Summary of Facts: Investigation of CIA Involvement in Plans to Assassinate Foreign Leaders," June 5, 1975, Box 7). Same URL as note 2. Document 15 is the working copy of Part I of the report, "Intelligence - Rockefeller Commission Report - Working Copy," digitized from Box 8 of the Cheney Files, with the cover memorandum of June 4, 1975 from Rumsfeld, Buchen, Marsh and Hills to Henry Kissinger; the mail-opening conclusion is on page 34 of the digitized file and the Operation CHAOS conclusion on page 39. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/2719476/Document-15.pdf ↩︎

4. Cable, Rumsfeld, Brussels, to Cheney, May 30, 1975, Richard B. Cheney Files, Box 6, folder "Intelligence - New York Times Articles by Seymour Hersh (2)," Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library. https://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/library/document/0005/7288231.pdf ↩︎

5. Memorandum, Bud McFarlane to Dick Cheney, "Holystone," May 30, 1975, Cheney Files, Box 6, same file as note 4. ↩︎

6. Memorandum, Cheney to Rumsfeld, May 30, 1975, Cheney Files, Box 6, same file as note 4. ↩︎

7. Memorandum, May 31, 1975, Cheney Files, Box 6, same file as note 4, pp. 1-3. ↩︎

8. Memorandum, Rex E. Lee and John C. Keeney to the Attorney General, "Recent Disclosure of Classified Information in New York Times Article," undated, Cheney Files, Box 6, same file as note 4, pp. 1-9. ↩︎

9. Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair, H. Rept. 100-433, S. Rept. 100-216, November 1987, minority views, ch. 1, p. 451, and ch. 2, p. 460; staff list, Minority Staff Editor/Writer Michael J. Malbin. https://archive.org/download/Iran-ContraReport/Report%20of%20the%20Congressional%20Committees%20Investigating%20the%20Iran-Contra%20Affair.pdf ↩︎

10. Iran-Contra report, majority views, ch. 6, p. 132 and n. 193 (McFarlane before the House Intelligence Committee, Dec. 10, 1986). Same URL as note 9. ↩︎

11. Miller Center, "Statecraft: The Bush 41 Team," "Proving ground: How the December 1989 invasion of Panama shaped the Bush 41 foreign policy team," quoting Richard Cheney and Colin Powell in the Miller Center's George H. W. Bush Oral History Project. https://millercenter.org/statecraftmovie/proving-ground ↩︎

12. Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission, Report to the President, July 1, 1993, ch. 3, p. 3-1 (1990 announcement; commission schedule under PL 101-510) and the discussion of the Secretary's March 12, 1993 submission. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GOVPUB-D-PURL-LPS111641/pdf/GOVPUB-D-PURL-LPS111641.pdf ↩︎

13. National Security Archive, "Declassified Studies from Cheney Pentagon Show Push for U.S. Military Predominance and a Strategy to 'Prevent the Reemergence of a New Rival,'" February 26, 2008, Electronic Briefing Book on the Defense Planning Guidance, including Document 12 (April 16, 1992 draft), the March 20 and March 26, 1992 memoranda to Cheney, and the January 1993 "Regional Defense Strategy." https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/node/2607 ↩︎

14. PBS, FRONTLINE, "Iraq," 1992 theme page (excerpts of the 1992 Defense Planning Guidance and its leak). https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/iraq/themes/1992.html ↩︎

15. Halliburton Company, Form 10-K/A for fiscal 1998, executive officer table (Richard B. Cheney, "Chief Executive Officer, since October 1995") and Dresser asbestos litigation discussion ("Since 1976, approximately 190,000 claims have been filed"). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0000045012/000093066100000032/0000930661-00-000032.txt ↩︎

16. Halliburton Company, Schedule 14A proxy statement, 2004, Securities and Exchange Commission. ↩︎

17. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Press Release 2004-104, "SEC Charges Halliburton and Two Former Officers for Failure to Disclose a 1998 Change in Accounting Practice," August 3, 2004. https://www.sec.gov/news/press/2004-104.htm ↩︎

18. PBS, FRONTLINE/World, "KBR Hit With Record Bribery Fine," February 2009, reporting the Justice Department announcement of February 11, 2009 and the plea, fine and forfeiture figures. https://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/bribe/2009/02/kbr-hit-with-record-bribery-fine.html ↩︎

19. U.S. General Accounting Office, Contingency Operations: Opportunities to Improve the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program, GAO/NSIAD-97-63, February 11, 1997. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-97-63/html/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-97-63.htm ↩︎

20. Strohm, Chris. "Pentagon auditors request Halliburton probe." Government Executive, January 15, 2004. https://govexec.com/defense/2004/01/pentagon-auditors-request-halliburton-probe/15746; Associated Press, "Halliburton: $61M Overcharge?" CBS News, December 12, 2003. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/halliburton-61m-overcharge/ ↩︎

21. Greenhouse, Bunnatine H. Statement, Senate Democratic Policy Committee hearing, "An Oversight Hearing on Waste, Fraud, and Abuse in U.S. Government Contracting in Iraq," June 27, 2005. http://dpc.senate.gov/hearings/hearing22/greenhouse.pdf (Wayback capture of July 8, 2008). ↩︎

22. Mayer, Jane. The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals (New York: Doubleday, 2008), excerpt published by NPR and WFAE, July 15, 2008, passages on the continuity-of-government exercise and the Presidential Emergency Operations Center. https://www.wfae.org/2008-07-15/excerpt-the-dark-side. ↩︎

23. Cockburn, Andrew. Rumsfeld: His Rise, Fall, and Catastrophic Legacy (New York: Scribner, 2007), excerpt published as "When Rummy Tried to Nuke Russia," Salon, February 26, 2007. https://www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/35849 ↩︎

24. Office of the Vice President, transcript, "The Vice President appears on Meet the Press with Tim Russert," September 16, 2001, George W. Bush White House archive. https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/vicepresident/news-speeches/speeches/vp20010916.html ↩︎

25. National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, The 9/11 Commission Report (2004), ch. 1, "We Have Some Planes," pp. 39-42, notes 209-221. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-911REPORT/pdf/GPO-911REPORT.pdf ↩︎

26. Congressional Research Service, Walker v. Cheney: Statutory and Constitutional Issues Arising From the General Accounting Office's Suit Against the Vice President, RL31397, May 1, 2002. https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/RL31397.html ↩︎

27. Cheney v. United States District Court for the District of Columbia, 542 U.S. 367 (2004), No. 03-475, opinion of Justice Kennedy, decided June 24, 2004, on writ of certiorari to the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, 334 F.3d 1096, vacated and remanded. https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/03-475.ZC.html ↩︎

28. Office of the Press Secretary, "Vice President Speaks at VFW 103rd National Convention," remarks of the Vice President, August 26, 2002, White House archive (Wayback capture of August 27, 2002). http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/08/20020826.html ↩︎

29. UNSCOM/IAEA, "Interview with Hussein Kamal on 22 August 1995," p. 13, marked "UNSCOM/IAEA Sensitive." https://www.casi.org.uk/info/unscom950822.pdf; Rangwala, Glen. "The interview with Hussein Kamel," February 2003; Barry, John. Newsweek, March 3, 2003. ↩︎

30. U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Special Counsel, remarks of Patrick J. Fitzgerald, press conference on the indictment of I. Lewis Libby, October 28, 2005 (Exhibit E to the Government's filing of March 17, 2006). https://www.justice.gov/archive/osc/documents/2006_03_17_exhibits_e_g.pdf ↩︎

31. The White House, "Grant of Executive Clemency for Lewis Libby," Proclamation, July 2, 2007, reciting the judgment in United States v. Libby, Crim. No. 05-394 (RBW), imposed June 22, 2007. https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2007/07/20070702-4.html ↩︎

32. U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, press release, "Senate Intelligence Committee Unveils Final Phase II Reports on Prewar Iraq Intelligence," June 5, 2008, summarizing the committee's report on whether public statements regarding Iraq were substantiated by intelligence. https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/2008/06/05/press-senate-intelligence-committee-unveils-final-phase-ii-reports-prewar-iraq-intelligence/ ↩︎

33. U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services, Inquiry into the Treatment of Detainees in U.S. Custody, Committee Print, November 20, 2008, PDF pp. 17 and 29. https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Detainee-Report-Final_April-22-2009.pdf ↩︎

34. Offices of the Inspectors General of the Department of Justice, Department of Defense, Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency and Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Unclassified Report on the President's Surveillance Program, July 10, 2009, preface (review required under Title III of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008). Also at: https://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/library/reports/2009/psp-oigs_090710-01.htm ↩︎

35. O'Brien, Cathy, and Mark Phillips. Trance Formation of America. 1995. ↩︎

36. WLOS, "Former Vice President Dick Cheney dies at 84," Tennessee Newspaper Network (TNND) report of the family statement and the statement by President George W. Bush, November 4, 2025. https://wlos.com/news/nation-world/former-vice-president-dick-cheney-dies-at-84-leaves-behind-a-legacy-of-public-service-george-w-bush-wyoming-chief-of-staff-republican-conservative ↩︎

37. Green River Star, "Former VP Dick Cheney dies at 84," November 6, 2025 (family statement; death "on Monday, November 3"). https://www.greenriverstar.com/story/2025/11/06/news/former-vp-dick-cheney-dies-at-84/13300.html ↩︎