WASHINGTON – Dick Cheney's withering criticism of the Obama White House's terrorism-fighting policies came under an equally harsh response Sunday, with the former vice president accused of being ignorant or intentionally misleading.

John Brennan, who is President Barack Obama's counterterrorism adviser, said he has worked for five administrations and that Obama is as determined as anyone to keep the nation safe.

Cheney said last week that Obama is "trying to pretend" that the U.S. is not at war with terrorists. The result, the Republican Cheney said, is that Americans are less safe.

"I'm very disappointed in the vice president's comments," Brennan said, described himself as neither a Democrat or Republican. "Either the vice president is willfully mischaracterizing this president's position both in terms of the language he uses and the actions he's taken, he's ignorant of the facts.

"And in either case it doesn't speak well of what the vice president is doing. The clear evidence is that this president has been very, very strong. In his inaugural address he said we're at war with this international network of terrorists. We continue to say that we're at war with al-Qaida."

Brennan added that "partisan politics should be put aside when something as important to national security as the threat of terrorism . ... It continues to haunt us. And we have to make sure that we stay focused on al-Qaida. And so that's what I'm going to do in this job. I don't care what Republicans or Democrats say out there. We need to continue to prosecute this war because al-Qaida the organization needs to be destroyed."

In his recent comments, Cheney said Obama "seems to think if he closes Guantanamo and releases the hard-core al-Qaida-trained terrorists still there, we won't be at war. He seems to think if he gets rid of the words, 'war on terror,' we won't be at war."

Even some Republicans have noted that the Bush administration released some Guantanamo detainees who later joined violent anti-American groups in Yemen.

Brennan spoke during interviews on "Fox News Sunday" and NBC's "Meet the Press."

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Damn hell, you say somebody from the Obama camp disagrees with Cheney?

I'm totally and utterly shocked too

I agree with you about Obama he is still doing a very good job in office . Its the hacks he hired that are worthless and a lot of the party . they don't seem to understand there not kings and queens or nobility . This is a democracy . They are just people doing the peoples business or so we hope ....

The first part of this post is only slightly ridiculous.

" The hacks " he hired...are the people HE CHOSE to put in positions of power.

Good GAWD.

If those people are " hacks " then Saint Obama did not do a " good job " in hiring them.

" They don't seem to understand there are not Kings and Queens "....

But but but...the MEDIA treats Obama like a King. He can do no wrong in the eyes of the left wing media. Hell, even around this site there are MANY folks who think Obama can and has done absolutely nothing wrong at this point.

He has made an awful lot of missteps in his hiring, yet, no one on the Left is willing to call him out about it.

Is it any wonder that the rest of the party would let that go to their heads and would lead them to assume that they can do whatever the hell they want???

If the BO would stop worrying about what people are saying about him (Fox, Cheney, Limbaugh, etc.) and do the job he was hired to do, maybe he'd get something done. But, then again, maybe it's a good thing, because he's screwing up everything he touches like the economy and health care.

Obama does is job.
Better than anyone in my 49 years.

Dick Cheney is a symbol of what's wrong in this country = The Republican Party!
Another problem is those who let themselves believe the Republican lies.
Pathetic as he is.
He is their mouth-piece.

Yep. He did a GREAT job putting extremely competent people in high positions.

What a joke.

Oh. By the way, Fanta.

You need to make up your mind.

Does Cheney speak for the Republicans??? Or is it Rush Limbaugh??

That depends on which of them you sak!

Does it matter.
One is an arse and the other speaks through his arse.

Cheney's pissed he didn't get his shot at ruling his evil empire. I forgive him for saying Obama thinks we're not at war. That's probably one of the more intelligent things that ever came out of his ugly puss. ... see ya later, Shades

Isn't anyone going to shut that guy up? Today I heard a commentator saying that Cheney is the first Vice President in history to proclaim to the world that our President is too weak to run the country. This is clearly an attempt to call on more trouble. Who is giving him all this airtime, anyway!?

I personally think Cheney seems like a grumpy senile man. HE wishes he had someone as intelligent as Barack to work with instead of daddys boy Bush.

I wish some of the people who think like he does would just get on an airbuss and go start their own idillic form of government. But wait, that won't work. They still need to have the rest of us to tromp on. Sure would be nice though. We could actually discuss issues without all the hacking and spitting.

even if I don't like or agree with what the opposite side says, I would still like to hear it. Keeps things balanced.

That's all well and good, for adult mentalities. But if you have a child screaming foul 24/7, now do you still want to hear what they have to say?

The real enemy is right here on our shores, people. Manipulating the media into covering the rebellion against our own, elected, government.

Now there's something to really cry about.