As vice president during 9/11, Cheney is at the center of an enduring debate over U.S. spy powers

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Dick Cheney championed sweeping post-9/11 surveillance powers like the Patriot Act and NSA wiretapping, fundamentally reshaping America’s national security apparatus for decades to come.

Two decades later, the bipartisan consensus on expanded surveillance has fractured, with Republicans now skeptical of the very authorities Cheney championed over government overreach concerns.

Cheney’s legacy extends beyond surveillance expansion to politicizing intelligence itself—a controversial approach that continues to influence contemporary national security debates and military operations today.

WASHINGTON — Dick Cheney was the public face of the George W. Bush administration’s boundary-p