So, Dick Cheney’s secret, undisclosed location was actually a bunker built directly under his home in the Naval Observatory. I guess you call that ‘hiding in the plain sight.’ It looks like Cheney had the bunker built in 2002, probably at great taxpayer expense. And Joe Biden casually divulged this information to some reporters at this year’s Gridiron Club dinner where he was filling in for the president.
Eleanor Clift, Newsweek magazine’s Washington contributing editor, said Biden revealed the location while filling in for President Obama at the dinner, who, along with Grover Cleveland, is the only president to skip the gathering.
According to the report, Biden “said a young naval officer giving him a tour of the residence showed him the hideaway, which is behind a massive steel door secured by an elaborate lock with a narrow connecting hallway lined with shelves filled with communications equipment.”
Clift continued: “The officer explained that when Cheney was in lock down, this was where his most trusted aides were stationed, an image that Biden conveyed in a way that suggested we shouldn’t be surprised that the policies that emerged were off the wall.”
It’s not entirely clear from the literal reading of that report whether this was really Cheney’s hidey-hole, or just the location he used for his staff. Either way, though, Vice-President Biden wasn’t really using his head when he decided to declassify this information. The Republicans will have a field day criticizing Biden for imperiling his own life and wasting taxpayer dollars.
In the big picture, this isn’t that big of a deal, but it certainly warrants a slap-down from Obama. This isn’t how you run a ship of state.
Was Cheney’s hidey-hole nuclear bomb proof? How about Osama bin-Laden proof? Does the Sith emperor really require such a safe hiding place?
I assume it was nuclear bomb proof, although perhaps not against a direct hit.
Great — just what we need. Cheney survives the nuke conflagration to carry on repopulating the earth with monstrosities like him. Yippee.
Don’t forget, the cockroaches and rats that will survive with him.
So I guess he’ll need a nametag?
It’s not often that someone makes me laugh until tears are streaming down my face. Thank you. 😉
I think they’ll call him His Royal Highness.
Not a big deal in the small picture either. Yeah, it will bring out the yappers, but who cares?
I am still for the life of me baffled about this whole Pelosi/torture thing, except that the CIA needs something to distract the slow-witted lemurs of the right from the actual facts of the CIA torturing people.
I don’t think that this is such a big deal. I mean, Cheney isn’t still hiding down there, is he?
While Biden surely needs a muffler on his mouth, Cheney’s hidey-hole was only a secret because Cheney wanted it to be secret – he’s the one who had it built. This isn’t something that was built to protect against Soviet nukes or to maintain the continuity of leadership should something happen to the president; this was built to shield Dick Cheney from his enemies, specifically every living being on God’s green Earth – divulging its location is inconsequential.
According to the report, Biden “said a young naval officer giving him a tour of the residence showed him the hideaway, which is behind a massive steel door secured by an elaborate lock with a narrow connecting hallway lined with shelves filled with communications equipment.”
Isn’t this just part of the man size safe we already know about? Or is this something different?
so he’s got a “bomb shelter” under his house…albeit a rather expensive one l’m sure. just another example of cheney’s paranoia.
this isn’t worth the ink/pixels/crocodile tears that’ll get spilled over it.
Vice-President Biden wasn’t really using his head when he decided to declassify this information.
I remember reading some time around 2001 that Cheney’s neighbors mentioned hearing strange noises coming from the Naval Observatory; the story went on to suggest that a bunker was being built. I’m sure this was a secret from no one but the American public.
I remember those reports as well. They were spread much wider than this story. It’s no secret that Cheney had all of this built. Comedians even joked about what “Cheney’s Dungeon” likely contained.
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(BBC News) Dec. 9, 2002 – Dick Cheney is getting a nuclear bunker. Or a spy tunnel. Or a helicopter landing pad. Or maybe nothing at all.
Rumours are rife in Washington about the nature of building work being carried out at the Naval Observatory, which includes the official residence of the vice-president of the United States.
Neighbours upset by the noise were sent a letter from the observatory’s superintendent which said: “Due to its sensitive nature in support of national security and homeland defence, project specific information is classified and cannot be released.”
The letter went on to say that the work was urgent and needed to be done “on a highly accelerated schedule”.
Shadow government and bunker duty
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Meh, who cares? Maybe it’s actually more important to highlight what a fucking loon Dick Cheney is than to ensure that the vice president survives a nuclear war.
I mean, seriously. In the aftermath of any event that actually requires a bunker of this sort — which would pretty much have to be a global thermonuclear war or a major asteroid impact — if I am still around to have any concerns in the first place, you can rest assured that the survival of the vice president or, for that matter, the continuity of the United States government, will not be among them.
Personally, I would prefer our government to spend time planning how to handle, say, the end of a limited war in a third-world country like Iraq than to spend time and money planning for the aftermath of end-of-the-world scenarios in which, well, the aftermath just doesn’t really matter all that much. Let’s worry about avoiding extinction instead of making sure that the last man is around to fold the last flag.
It only goes to show…. Cheney’s prime motivation for almost EVERYTHING he did or pushed for after 9/11 — was fear. He was personally afraid — and that’s at least in part why he pushed a message of fear — because as far as he was concerned, terrorist attack was THE greatest danger he could imagine, and he saw himself as a target.
Bullies are usually cowards.
He tried to control everything around him, right down to requiring the TVs at any hotel he went to be pre-set to the one channel he knew wouldn’t contradict his vision of the world. He avoided any situation where he might be challenged or put at risk — his “undisclosed location” was more than security concerns, it was downright paranoia.
A bunker he had built under his very residence? Not surprising in the least. I’m sure he couldn’t sleep at night, realizing that every enemy he had could find the Vice President’s official residence on a local map (even if they couldn’t see it on Google satellite view–which he himself had ordered blocked!)
I’m sure there’s a bunker under the White House (I think I’ve heard there’s one). There’s some sense to that, sadly — just as there’s sense behind the high-security that exists around every President. Sometimes that security drives President Obama nuts, because he’s used to more freedom. He knows the risks, he knows the reason the Secret Service take precautions as they do — but he doesn’t let himself live in fear over it all.
Cheney was afraid, and went to elaborate lengths to protect himself and push that fear as the truth of the world (though with callous disregard for the safety of anyone ELSE other than himself and those he considered valuable). He took his own 1% doctrine very seriously — a bully’s doctrine based on fear and intimidation of others (and protection of himself).
Don’t much care about Biden’s gaffe. A relatively new, top-secret bunker under the VP’s residence says more about Cheney’s paranoia than anything else.
Biden’s giving Cheney’s paranoia the respect it deserves – none. and signalling that he has confidence in the usa people and secret service.
I can’t wait for the full story of Cheney’s craziness to come out.
Gaffe or Transparency: bringing paranoia to light?
I’ve got problems with Biden for being D-MBNA & for the 2005 Bankruptcy Bill, but not over this.
Gordon Thomas, the author of Gideon’s Spies disclosed that yeaaaaars ago.
Explain how Biden telling about Cheney’s bunker is a “gaffe.” Who says this information was secret? Who says it wasn’t supposed to be revealed? Who says Biden said something he shouldn’t have?
Conservatives obviously think they’ve hit on a winner with this “Biden is a gaffe machine” meme. As far as I can tell, it’s BS, but comedians and Saturday Night Live have followed suit.
I don’t expect Democrats to back their office holders to the hilt regardless of transgression, like Republicans do, but isn’t it a good idea for liberals to find out if the meme is true before spreading it?