He also expressed concern that negotiations to retain some U.S. troops in Iraq as security for Americans working there were abandoned.
When asked about reports that Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has been consolidating power by rounding up Baathist Party members and that some Western companies have been kicked out of the Green Zone, Cheney replied, "I don't know the details now the way I used to when I was in the loop with the intelligence reports and so forth. I think the Iraqis have got to organize themselves however they want to organize themselves.
"They're a sovereign state and that's partly what the struggle is all about. But I think they've made major progress. They've written a Constitution, they've had a lot of elections. They've got a democracy established. It's not perfect by any means, there's a lot of work to be done. But they're clearly much better off than when Saddam Hussein was in charge.
On Tuesday, a semi-official Iranian news agency said authorities have shrugged off the U.S. request. Defense Minister Gen. Ahmad Vahidi said the United States should apologize for invading Iranian air space instead of asking for the return of the unmanned aircraft.
Obama wouldn’t comment on what the Iranians might learn from studying the downed aircraft. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said it’s difficult to know “just frankly how much they’re going to be able to get from having obtained those parts.”
Former Vice President Dick Cheney on Tuesday called the downing of the drone “a significant intelligence loss.”
“For us to go in and take out the drone that crashed, I think, would have been a fairly simple operation,” he said on CBS’s “The Early Show.” But Cheney said the administration “basically limited itself to saying please give it back.” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Panetta said they’re not optimistic about getting the drone back because of recent Iranian behavior that Clinton said indicated “that the path that Iran seems to be going down is a dangerous one for themselves and the region.”
“We submitted a formal request for the return of our lost equipment as we would in any situation to any government around the world,” Clinton told reporters at a State Department news conference with British Foreign Secretary William Hague.
“Given Iran’s behavior to date we do not expect them to comply but we are dealing with all of these provocations and concerning actions taken by Iran in close concert with our closest allies and partners,” she said.
Panetta said the request to return the drone was appropriate. “I don’t expect that that will happen,” he said. “But I think it’s important to make that request.”
Neither Obama nor Clinton would provide details of the drone request, but diplomatic exchanges between Washington to Tehran are often handled by Switzerland, which represents U.S. interests in Iran. The State Department said Monday that the Swiss ambassador to Iran met with Iranian foreign ministry officials last week but refused to say what they discussed.
Iran TV reported earlier Monday that Iranian experts were in the final stages of recovering data from the RQ-170 Sentinel, which went down in Iran earlier this month. Tehran has cited the capture as a victory for Iran and displayed the nearly intact drone on state TV. U.S. officials say the aircraft malfunctioned and was not brought down by Iran.
Despite the incident, Clinton said the administration and its allies would continue to push Iran to engage over its nuclear program while at the same time increasing pressure on the regime with new, enhanced sanctions.
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