9/11/Iraq Connection denied by Cheney

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-07-2003
9/11/Iraq Connection denied by Cheney
15
Fri, 10-08-2004 - 12:01pm
Debate:

Edwards- And these connections -- I want the American people to hear this very clearly. Listen carefully to what the vice president is saying. Because there is no connection between Saddam Hussein and the attacks of September 11th -- period.

The 9/11 Commission has said that's true. Colin Powell has said it's true. But the vice president keeps suggesting that there is. There is not. And, in fact, any connection with Al Qaida is tenuous at best.

Cheney-- The senator has got his facts wrong. I have not suggested there's a connection between Iraq and 9/11, but there's clearly an established Iraqi track record with terror.

http://www.debates.org/pages/trans2004b.html

Interview:

MR. RUSSERT: The Washington Post asked the American people about Saddam Hussein, and this is what they said: 69 percent said he was involved in the September 11 attacks. Are you surprised by that?

VICE PRES. CHENEY: No. I think it’s not surprising that people make that connection.

MR. RUSSERT: But is there a connection?

VICE PRES. CHENEY: We don’t know. You and I talked about this two years ago. I can remember you asking me this question just a few days after the original attack. At the time I said no, we didn’t have any evidence of that. Subsequent to that, we’ve learned a couple of things. We learned more and more that there was a relationship between Iraq and al-Qaeda that stretched back through most of the decade of the ’90s, that it involved training, for example, on BW and CW, that al-Qaeda sent personnel to Baghdad to get trained on the systems that are involved. The Iraqis providing bomb-making expertise and advice to the al-Qaeda organization.

We know, for example, in connection with the original World Trade Center bombing in ’93 that one of the bombers was Iraqi, returned to Iraq after the attack of ’93. And we’ve learned subsequent to that, since we went into Baghdad and got into the intelligence files, that this individual probably also received financing from the Iraqi government as well as safe haven.

Now, is there a connection between the Iraqi government and the original World Trade Center bombing in ’93? We know, as I say, that one of the perpetrators of that act did, in fact, receive support from the Iraqi government after the fact. ********With respect to 9/11, of course, we’ve had the story that’s been public out there. The Czechs alleged that Mohamed Atta, the lead attacker, met in Prague with a senior Iraqi intelligence official five months before the attack, but we’ve never been able to develop anymore of that yet either in terms of confirming it or discrediting it.********* We just don’t know.

(*emphasis mine)

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3080244/

(Also see, CNBC interview with Gloria Borger from June 17.)

He is clearly suggesting a connection between 9/11 and Iraq. To steal the words of Jon Stewart-- "Mr. Vice President, you're pants are on fire."

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iVillage Member
Registered: 08-11-2004
Sat, 10-09-2004 - 1:43pm
Lies are the core of Kerry's campaign. When he looked in the camera and said I have never changed my view on Iraq it was laughable. What a fraud.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-24-2003
Sat, 10-09-2004 - 3:09pm
Forgive me, but that cracks me up. Bush has told more lies than every other presidential candidate in my lifetime combined.
iVillage Member
Registered: 12-07-2003
Sat, 10-09-2004 - 3:46pm
I am incredibly disturbed not only by the lies this administration have told to the American people with no remorse (esp. Cheney and Rumsfeld), but also the American people's gullibility in believing them.
Avatar for momeebear
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Sat, 10-09-2004 - 3:49pm
Ok, now that I've watched the debate, where did Mr. Bush get all that about 75% of Al-Qaeda being apprehended????? That was news to me. They are SO numerous now, that as soon as one leader is picked off, another takes his place.....like gray hairs---pluck one and ten more spring up! Do you know where he got this figure, because I don't imagine it's very accurate?
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-24-2003
Sat, 10-09-2004 - 4:32pm
I do believe they come from the same place the "Kerry voted for tax increases 98 times" comes from. (Earlier in the year it was like 82 they were using.) In other words, they make it up. Whatever works for a sound bite.

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