In an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sunday, former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney accused the Obama administration’s policies regarding anti-terrorism of opening the door for future attacks. The new administration has doubtlessly taken a new approach to Bush’s, and Cheney believes that this makes the U.S. vulnerable.

Though criticism of Obama by Cheney is nothing new, but the latest attempted lambasting comes amid much Republican criticism of the new President in Washington; criticism which has done little to halt down the many bills Obama has asked to be pushed through Congress. In the televised interview, Cheney made attempts to refute claims that the Bush administration, under which he served as V.P. for 8 years, was responsible for the current financial crisis, and expressed doubts that White House intervention was the right course to be taken.

Cheney, who maintained during the broadcast that anti-terrorism efforts since 9/11 have been successful, attributed the triumph to “absolutely essential” aspects of Bush policy: areas which either have been, or will be, reviewed by Obama. Amongst the areas of policy in question by Cheney are the motioned closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, secret interrogation sites, and the eradication of the term “enemy combatant” from legal vernacular. Torture has also been prohibited in the interrogation of terrorist suspects.

“President (Barack) Obama campaigned against it all across the country, and now he is making some choices that, in my mind, will, in fact, raise the risk to the American people of another attack,” — Former Vice President Dick Cheney

The former vice president feels that Clinton, the last Democratic President, had a similar attitude to terrorism as Obama, viewing it as a law enforcement matter as opposed to the “war” so ardently propagated by the Bush administration. He expressed fears that the effort to counter terrorism would be de-escalated by the change of perspective, and further criticized the many reforms proposed by Obama constitute “one of the greatest expansions of federal control over the private economy, probably in the history of the republic.”

Amongst a wave of criticism, Cheney did commend Obama on his plans for Iraq pullout outlined last month, praising the decision to make the process gradual on the advice of military commanders in the area. The sentiments expressed by officials there reflect the former vice president’s certainty that the Iraq invasion was the correct choice, having “accomplished nearly everything we set out to do.”

Cheney will offer more opinions to the public in a book he plans to write, he said, covering his many years in government.

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