Dick Cheney Secret Recording at Jewish Coalition event

In a speech at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s spring meeting in Las Vegas over the weekend, former Vice President Dick Cheney slammed the “isolationists” within the GOP, defended the National Security Agency spy program and, of course, criticized President Barack Obama.

Cheney’s remarks were closed to the press, but audio of the speech obtained by Mother Jones was posted online Tuesday:

“That we have created in the National Security Agency this monster bureaucracy that’s reading everybody’s mail, listening to everybody’s phone calls, infringing upon our civil liberties and civil rights — hogwash,” Cheney said at the March 29 event. “It probably would’ve allowed us to stop 9/11.

…Cheney also commented on the crop of possible 2016 candidates, including Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul.

“One of the things that concerns me first about the campaign, that I’m worried about, is what I sense to be an increasing strain of isolationism, if I can put it in those terms, in our own party,” Cheney said. “It’s not taking over, by any means, but there is without question a body of thought now that’s supported by many Republicans and some candidates that the United States can afford to turn its back on [the Middle East].

“The United States’ position in [the Middle East] is worse than at any time in my lifetime,” Cheney said. “It’s reached the point where Israel and Egypt, [the United Arab] Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jordan are closer to one another — imagine that — than any of them is to us. … Nobody who’s been our friend in the past any longer has any sense of trust in we’ll keep our commitments, that we’ll be there in a crisis when they need us. On the other hand, none of our adversaries need fear us…”

More: http://news.yahoo.com/cheney-adelson-speech-nsa-iran-151630354.html