Former US Vice President Dick Cheney passes away at 84
DICK Cheney, the former US Vice President, who served during the George W. Bush era, died at 84, due to complications related to pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease. His family said in a statement.
Cheney played a significant role in the US decision to invade Iraq in 2003 in an attempt to disarm the Iraqi government of weapons of mass destruction. He is also considered one of the most powerful Vice Presidents in the history of the US by the country's presidential historians.
As reported by the news agency Reuters, the Republican, a former Wyoming congressman and Secretary of Defence, had established himself as a towering political figure in Washington when Bush chose him as his running companion for the 2000 Presidential Election.
During his tenure as Vice President from 2001 to 2009, Cheney worked rigorously to expand the power of the presidency, after feeling that it had been eroding since the Watergate scandal that drove Richard Nixon, the former US President, and Cheney's one-time boss, from office.
His vice presidency also marked significant controversies, as he often clashed with various Bush administrators, including Secretaries of State Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice. He also flagged a controversy by defending 'enhanced' interrogation techniques of terrorism suspects that included waterboarding and sleep deprivation.
Many, including the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the U.N. special rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights, called these techniques torture.
Although a Republican, he vehemently opposed current US President Donald Trump and called him a threat to the US ahead of the 2024 Presidential election. He also supported Kamla Harris ahead of the 2024 election.
"In our nation's 248 history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump," Cheney said ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
