Cheney link of Iraq, 9/11 challenged

[MaineDem]

WASHINGTON -- Vice President Dick Cheney, anxious to defend the White House foreign policy amid ongoing violence in Iraq, stunned intelligence analysts and even members of his own administration this week by failing to dismiss a widely discredited claim: that Saddam Hussein might have played a role in the Sept. 11 attacks.

Evidence of a connection, if any exists, has never been made public. Details that Cheney cited to make the case that the Iraqi dictator had ties to Al Qaeda have been dismissed by the CIA as having no basis, according to analysts and officials. Even before the war in Iraq, most Bush officials did not explicitly state that Iraq had a part in the attack on the United States two years ago.

But Cheney left that possibility wide open in a nationally televised interview two days ago, claiming that the administration is learning "more and more" about connections between Al Qaeda and Iraq before the Sept. 11 attacks. The statement surprised some analysts and officials who have reviewed intelligence reports from Iraq.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2003/09/16/cheney_link_of_iraq_911_challenged/

[ixion]

1. now who is the conspiracy theorist in this case?

Cheney, perhaps? And yet they have the gall to call us conspiracy theorists. :eyes:

Between this and the no WMD's report being shelved, I really hope the sheeple start to realize what an abomination this lying admin really is.


on edit:
oh, they're learning more and more alright... they're just learning that there IS no connection and there ARE NO WMD's.

now if they can only 'learn' to read those intelligence reports.

[phillybri]

2. Cheney is garbage...

Just one more reason to get rid of Bush no matter what.

The others:

Rice
Powell
Rumsfeld
Wolfowitz
Perle
and on and on....

[MaineDem]

3. He's still talking about the Atta meeting in Prague

"In particular, current intelligence officials reiterated yesterday that a reported Prague visit in April 2001 between Sept. 11 hijacker Mohamed Atta and an Iraqi agent had been discounted by the CIA, which sent former agency Director James R. Woolsey to investigate the claim. ... But Cheney, on NBC's "Meet the Press," cited the report of the meeting as possible evidence of an Iraq-Al Qaeda link and said it was neither confirmed nor discredited, saying: "We've never been able to develop any more of that yet, either in terms of confirming it or discrediting it. We just don't know.""

Lies...blatant lies!

[lanlady]

5. incredible, isn't it?

The Czech government itself has denied this meeting ever took place.

[htuttle]

7. The FBI was tracking Atta during that time, and he was in the US

They have his hotel room and charge card receipts! This is not secret knowledge -- It's been reported in the major print media.

Cheney is counting on people not being informed, and the press corps to keep their mouths shut about it.

[FauxNewsBlues]

4. October Surprise

Unless they have found WMD's and are holding them back, or they are planning on planting some, it appears that Iraq could be the key to attacking this president's foreign policy.

I am kinda shocked that the democrats aren't hitting harder on this one. If I was a national democrat, I wouldn't be shutting up about this one. I would go everywhere carrying a thimble, showing every reporter who would listen, that it was an empty thimble, and slamming the Chimp about no WMD's.

Bush is only vulnerable if his vulnerabilities are worked over meticulously like a skilled boxer. Cheney's evil attempt to once again confuse people about Iraq/9-11 should be so shouted down by the democrats that both the media and the White House should have to respond publically.

I am mightily pissed at my two democratic Senators here in California for not being more visible. They could get air time on any talk radio station here, any tv station they wanted basically to hammer the president, but they have chosen not to do so. I fired a cranky email to Barbara Boxer last week because she has been more invisible lately then Casper. Instead of firing letters to the White House, which will of course ignore them. Perhaps it's time to really start pressuring the democrats to get more visible.

[Maeve]

6. I like this from Eric Alterman

“Sir, with all due respect, that claim is based on the claim of a single uncorroborated informant to Czech intelligence. President Havel informed President Bush that the meeting had almost certainly not taken place. Moreover, when the high-level al-Qaida leader, Abu Zubaydah, was finally captured in March 2002 in Pakistan, he informed his captors, according to a New York Times report, that bin Laden had personally rejected the idea of any kind of alliance with Saddam Hussein. Zubaydah’s explanation was later corroborated by testimony from high-level al-Qaida agents captured later in the spring, including one of the key planners of the Sept. 11 attacks, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. Farouk Hijazi, a former Iraqi intelligence operative who U.S. officials allege met with al-Qaida operatives and perhaps bin Laden himself in the 1990s, also has denied any Iraq-al-Qaida ties, according to U.S. officials. Meanwhile, U.S. military forces also captured Samir al-Ani, the very man in question, in July, with no word on any meeting. Do you have any new evidence, Secretary Cheney, or are you simply trying to perpetrate yet another lie on top of all those already perpetrated since you and President Bush planned this ruinous war?"
http://www.msnbc.com/news/752664.asp?0dm=C13OO

[Aries]

8. "Why aren't Americans rioting in the streets over this?...."

xymphora

Tuesday, September 16, 2003

"I still don't understand the absence of outrage over the position of Dick Cheney in the Iraq debacle. Cheney is still getting paid by Halliburton. You can bet that after he is out of politics Halliburton will ensure that he is very well looked after. Due in part to Cheney's incompetent management when he was running Halliburton, Halliburton was in danger of disappearing under the weight of liability claims against it. Cheney is no doubt still assisting Halliburton in that battle, and the extremely lucrative contracts in Iraq, almost all of which are going to Halliburton, are ensuring that Halliburton remains in business...

...Hundreds of dead American soldiers, thousands of badly maimed American soldiers, thousands and thousands of dead Iraqi civilians, the enmity of the whole world (brand names associated with the United States are rapidly losing market share around the world), and $166 billion (and counting) later, it turns out that the war turned on the insistence of one man who directly financially benefited from that war. Why aren't Americans rioting in the streets over this?...."

[underpants]

9. He also claimed an Iraqi was involved in first WTC bombing TRUE?

Cheney said that an Iraqi was involved in the first WTC bombing in Feb. 1993 (38 days in to Clinton's term) and that this Iraqi may have been given refuge and support in Iraq and by Saddam. Anyone know anything about this?

AS I have understood it the first WTC bombing was not actually an alQaeda actions. The "Blind Cleric" was the head of another group (name?) Is that right?

[NNN0LHI]

13. Untrue. See post # 9 on the link below

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=337126#337337

[underpants]

14. Hey I'm #9 oh I see the guy IS in Iraq in jail

So what Dick said on Sunday ~(loose quote) "One of the people involved in the first World Trade Center bombing is (fled?) back to Iraq and perhaps ( :eyes: ) received aid and comfort there.

Total BS I knew it was I just hadn't seen it from a reliable source.

NNNOLHI you rock.

[NNN0LHI]

15. And he is an American citizen too. Born here and everything n/t

[Evil_Dewers]

10. Dick Cheney, Liar Extraordinaire...

He then revived the possibility that Mohamed Atta, who led the Sept. 11 attacks, allegedly met with an Iraqi intelligence officer in Baghdad five months before the attack. It is a story Cheney had repeated during a March 16 appearance on "Meet the Press" and one that his aides tried to have added to Powell's presentation in February at the United Nations.

"We've never been able to develop any more of that yet, either in terms of confirming it or discrediting it," Cheney said yesterday. "We just don't know."

An FBI investigation concluded that Atta was apparently in Florida at the time of the alleged meeting, and the CIA has always doubted it took place. Czech authorities, who first mentioned the alleged meeting in October 2001 to U.S. officials, have since said they no longer are certain the individual in the video of the supposed meeting was Atta. Meanwhile, in July, the U.S. military captured the Iraqi intelligence officer who was supposed to have met Atta and has not obtained confirmation from him.

Cheney also seemed to broaden the intelligence on other alleged al Qaeda connections with Hussein, saying, "The Iraqi government or the Iraqi intelligence service had a relationship with al Qaeda that stretched back through most of the decade of the '90s." Up to now, administration officials and CIA documents have said there had been eight meetings, primarily in the early 1990s, when bin Laden was in Sudan.

Cheney was less forthcoming when asked about Saudi Arabia's ties to al Qaeda and the Sept. 11 hijackers. "I don't want to speculate," he said, adding that Sept. 11 is "over with now, it's done, it's history and we can put it behind us."

More...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10734-2003Sep14.html

[bobthedrummer]

11. Huffman Aviation graduating class of 2001-the 19 hijackers?

http://www.madcowprod.com/

[TankLV]

12. that's soooo rich! on soooo many levels!

Let's lie our asses off by repeating this nonsence (speculating) when it benifits us, but lets ignor all the overwhelming damning (to bushco) evidence (not speculating) that SAUDI ARABIA IS DIRECTLY TIED TO THE ATTACKS OF 911!

And people why we call the newsreaders whores and the population of the US "sheeple".

Bushco dictionary:

Speculate: Expose the truth which is contrary/damning to your actions/positions/beliefs.

Facts: Any lies, despite no proof whatsoever, or, in fact, despite proof to the contrary, that further enhances your actions/positions/beliefs.

[Emboldened Chimp]

16. While he erroneously links Al-queda to Iraq

Cheney and the rest of these pigs protect the real culprits, Saudi Arabia. That is textbook treason. No hyperbole here. They continue to violate our national security by protecting those assholes. Why are people not screaming their heads off about this?

[Cush]

17. and like a good little soldier

Little Timmy let him get away with it

[Old and In the Way]

18. Is this the same Dick Cheney who was making big bucks in Iraq

in 1998 doing Halliburton deals through subsidiaries as a way of getting around the trade embargo?

The same one who was Sec. Def. in the early 90's getting Halliburton primed in DS1?

Isn't he now the Vice-President of Fundraising for the Republican Corporate Party?

[underpants]

19. I don't want to "misspeak" but

Yeah that would be him.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

20. DN goes after Crashcart:

http://www.democracynow.org/