NEW YORK, Feb 4: Former vice-president Dick Cheney has criticised President Barack Obama for ordering closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison and for halting surveillance without court orders.

Just two weeks after leaving office, Mr Cheney granted his first in-depth interview on Wednesday and took up themes which are strikingly political, given his former post, and the recent tradition of the outgoing administration giving the new folks some running room.

Mr Cheney reportedly asserted that there’s a “high probability” that terrorists would attempt a catastrophic attack in the coming years, and said he feared President Obama’s policies will make it more likely the attempt would succeed, ABC news reported. “When we get people who are more concerned about reading the rights to an Al Qaeda terrorist than they are with protecting the United States against people who are absolutely committed to do anything they can to kill Americans, then I worry,” Mr Cheney said, adding that Obama was following “campaign rhetoric” in making good on his promise to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay.

Political analysts here observed that “part of what’s interesting about the interview is that it strongly suggests that Cheney — more than George W.

Bush — will be the public voice in defence of the Bush administration’s policies.”

Mr Cheney may not be the ideal voice to lead the Republican Party back from the wilderness. But he sure knows how to make headlines.

On the stimulus bill: “It looks to me like there’s a lot of stuff in there that has nothing to do with stimulus — it’s a sort of a wish list of a lot of my congressional Democratic friends,” Mr Cheney said.