'I Was Disgusted,' Says Former Bush Official About Liz Cheney Ad

Michael Isikoff Mar 8, 2010 12:56 PM
Nine former Bush administration officials who played major roles in shaping counterterrorism policies today released a statement condemning as “shameful” recent attacks by Liz Cheney’s advocacy group on Justice Department lawyers who had previously represented Guantánamo detainees.
The statement—whose signers include top lawyers at the Bush White House, Justice Department, and Pentagon—was in response to an inflammatory Web ad by Cheney’s group, Keep America Safe, that demanded to know the identities of those it called “the Al Qaeda 7”—a reference to Obama Justice Department lawyers who had done pro bono work on behalf of Guantánamo detainees.
The ad, which Liz Cheney has vigorously defended on TV, even showed a frame with a headline referring to Attorney General Eric Holder’s Justice Department as the “Department of Jihad.” The narrator asks in ominous tones about the lawyers: “Whose values do they share?” More