LIE: "I never said there was a connection between Iraq and 9/11"

[WilliamPitt]

Find the quotes, folks. There's the throat to be cut.

[Selwynn]

1. I SCREAMED TILL I CHOKED AT MY SCREEN AT THAT!!!!!!

My neighbors are pissed...

[durablend]

2. Flip flop

Flip flop...

Damn Dick...get yer facts straight will ya...

[Lex]

3. WTF? Cheney is just making sh*t up!

Cheney, dude, people are going to fact-check you on this.

[slutticus]

4. "There's overwhelming evidence there was a connection between al Qaeda ...

... and the Iraqi government," Cheney said in an interview on National Public Radio.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/01/23/MNG3M4G9GV1.DTL

[jefferson_dem]

8. Damn, you're good!

This community makes me proud to be a Dem!

[slutticus]

14. Google is Cheney's worst friend!

[St. Jarvitude]

19. The Truth is Cheney's worst friend.

What a fucking douchebag.

[RetroLounge]

51. Speaking of Douchebags

ever notice you've never seen Cheney and Novak in the same room.

Hmmmmm. Are they the same lying treasonous creep?

RL

[Gabi Hayes]

28. not watching...can't stomach Cheneydick, but WHAT did Edwards say?

haven't seen any answers on this thread?

he MUST have had a specific refutation of that

didn't he?

it's something that even the most casual news consumer must know, right?

what did Edwards say?

and WHAT ABOUT ZARQAWI? what about the three chances they turned down to BLOW his ass up?

even I could have at least cited the MSNBC story from March of this year, which detailed it....something like that would have gone over BIG, right?

[sistersofmercy]

5. I believe he said it on his last MTP visit. n/t

[gordianot]

6. He will pay big time for that one.

[Eric J in MN]

7. Cheney touts the Prague meeting which never happened (nt)

nt

[LynneSin]

9. Here's Washington Post and BBC

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3816699.stm

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A48970-2004Jun17?language=printer

[Bluebear]

10. FUCKING LIAR

[Triana]

11. THAT IS A BALD-FACED LIE...

Cheney has been saying that damn near everyplace he goes. How many times do we have that on tape???

HE SAID IT.

[slutticus]

12. "There clearly was a relationship. It's been testified to. The evidence is

... overwhelming," Cheney said in an interview with CNBC's "Capitol Report."

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/06/18/cheney.iraq.al.qaeda/

[bigpathpaul]

13. He has said it over and over again. It's on the record!

Full-size version can be downloaded from http://bigpath.net/politics/Cheney/CheneyStart.html

[bicentennial_baby]

15. Here you go

Bush Distances from Cheney on Saddam-9/11 Link

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0918-03.htm

Cheney link of Iraq, 9/11 challenged

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.

snip

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/

[Nlighten1]

16. One of the first statements Cheney made was the connection

between Iraq/Al Qadea
Then he turns right around and says he didn't say it.

LOL

[ParanoidPat]

17. Sept. 11 Panel Repeats Iraq-Osama Tie Weak

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20040706_1606.html

Sept. 11 Commission Sticks to Finding of Only Limited al-Qaida-Iraq Connection

The Associated Press


WASHINGTON July 6, 2004 — The Sept. 11 commission is standing by its finding that al-Qaida had only limited contact with Iraq before the terrorist attacks, a determination disputed by Vice President Dick Cheney.

The 10-member, bipartisan panel issued a one-sentence statement Tuesday saying it had access to the same information as Cheney, who suggested strong ties between ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida.

Those ties were a central justification the Bush administration gave for going to war with Iraq and were called into question after the commission released a preliminary report last month. The report cited contacts between Saddam's regime and Osama bin Laden but said there was no "collaborative relationship."

Cheney criticized the commission's finding in an interview with CNBC and said there "probably" was information about Iraq's links to terrorists that the commission members did not learn during their 14-month investigation. The commission statement disputed that.

[ParanoidPat]

20. Cheney link of Iraq, 9/11 challenged

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

By Anne E. Kornblut and Bryan Bender , Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent, 9/16/2003

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.

Democrats sharply attacked him for exaggerating the threat Iraq posed before the war.

"There is no credible evidence that Saddam Hussein had anything to do with 9/11," Senator Bob Graham, a Democrat running for president, said in an interview last night. "There was no such relationship."

A senior foreign policy adviser to Howard Dean, the Democratic front-runner, said it is "totally inappropriate for the vice president to continue making these allegations without bringing forward" any proof.

Cheney and his representatives declined to comment on the vice president's statements. But the comments also surprised some in the intelligence community who are already simmering over the way the administration utilized intelligence reports to strengthen the case for the war last winter.

[ParanoidPat]

21. The White House

The White House

The following news brief was sent out by the White House on June 18, 2004.

9/11 Commission Report Confirms Administration's Views of al-Qaeda/Iraq TiesPresident

A 9/11 Commission staff report supports the Bush Administration's longstanding conclusion that there was no evidence of "collaboration" between Iraq and al-Qaeda on the 9-11 attacks against the United States. The Administration has said, however, that it was worried about a number of contacts between Iraq and al-Qaeda, including contacts between senior Iraqi intelligence officers and senior members of al-Qaeda. The Commission's investigation does not dispute that contacts between Iraq and al-Qaeda occurred.

The Administration also knew that Iraq was harboring a terrorist network headed by Zarqawi. Zarqawi, the senior al-Qaeda associate who was known to be in Baghdad for medical treatment in May 2002, continues to undertake indiscriminate acts of terrorism today. The Administration knew Saddam had longstanding, direct, and continuing ties to a number of terrorist groups, including groups responsible for killing Americans.

On Thursday, both President Bush and the 9/11 Commission's Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton commented on press reaction to this 9/11 Commission staff report:

"The reason I keep insisting that there was a relationship between Iraq and Saddam and al-Qaeda because there was a relationship between Iraq and al-Qaeda. This administration never said that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated between Saddam and al-Qaeda. We did say there were numerous contacts between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda. For example, Iraqi intelligence officers met with bin Laden, the head of al-Qaeda, in the Sudan. There's numerous contacts between the two."
- President George W. Bush, 06/17/04

[ParanoidPat]

22. FUCKIN' FLIP FLOP! Cheney was Right on Iraq... The First Time

http://www.house.gov/mcdermott/sp040930a.shtml

Cheney was Right on Iraq... The First Time
House of Representatives - September 30, 2004

Mr. Speaker, the Vice President had it right on Iraq the first time, and now we know that because of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper columnist Joel Connelly.

The Vice President was Defense Secretary during the first Gulf War. Mr. Cheney told a Seattle audience in 1992 that it was folly to spill American blood to try to get Saddam or try to govern Iraq. This column ought to be required reading before the Presidential debates.

These are Dick Cheney's exact words in defending the first President Bush's decision to leave Iraq and Saddam Hussein: "And the question in my mind is how many additional American casualties is Saddam worth? And the answer is not that damned many. So I think we got it right, both when we decided to expel him from Kuwait, but also when the President made the decision that we had achieved our objectives and we were not going to get bogged down in the problems of trying to take over and govern Iraq."

[gasperc]

18. go whoop ass on Cheney in a article tomorrow Will!!!!

I'm sick of Cheney's insults against Edwards that we're inconsistent and it demeans the sacrifice of the others in the coalition

[Fatima]

23. What a GREAT Kerry ad that would make

throw that flipflop/lie right back at em!

[bigpathpaul]

24. Hit 'em in the head with this - attached!

Full-size version can be downloaded from http://bigpath.net/politics/Cheney/CheneyStart.html

[Gabi Hayes]

29. fanTASTIC poster...is Edwards doing anything to refute this BS?

[bigpathpaul]

31. I think he hit it is as much as he could w/o going overboard. n/t

[Cocoa]

25. a blunder, probably

I can't imagine Cheney wanted a total lie to be the big story of the debate.

He got away with doing this with Gloria Borger, but this is much higher profile.

[Tansy_Gold]

30. Disclaimer -- I'm too nervous to watch the debate, BUT

. . . . from what I read on the DU threads, cheney denied he had made the claim that Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11. He did not, apparently, deny any claims that he said Saddam was linked to Al Qaeda.

It's as if he said (hypothetically), "Yes, I said there was a link between Saddam and Al Qaeda, even though there's tons of evidence refuting such a claim, but I NEVER SAID SADDAM WORKED WITH AL QAEDA TO PULL OFF 9/11."

It's kind of like "Yes, I lit the joint, but I didn't inhale."

If cheney never claimed Saddam was behind 9/11, you can't call him a liar for saying he never claimed Saddam was behind 9/11.

[Poiuyt]

26. "Mr. Vice President, your pants are on fire."

[goodboy]

27. Why didn't edwards get to rebut that? nt

[MsMagnificent]

32. Who'd believe him after 'I never said connection between Iraq & al Qaida'

(Sorry, I started new thread & didn't see this one prior. It's obviously redundant, can I cancel it?)

WOLF WOLF

The sky is falling!

I never said there was a connection between Saddam and Al Qaida'


He insisted it was true within the past couple days even AFTER Rumsfeld finally admitted there was no connection.

It's on tape & been reported THOUSANDS of times. These guys are so used to LYING and the media letting get away with their LIES, they feel they can say anything and the whole country, not just brain-dead Freepers, will just nod & take them at their word!

[Polemonium]

33. Holy hell batman, the wheels keep coming off

When you lie so much I suppose it is just hard to keep track.

[Generic Other]

34. He sent me to factcheck.com

Sheesh!

[WillyT]

35. Hey !!! - You're Supposed To Be In Bed, Dammit !!!

Take two of these...



And call me in the... well, when ever you wake the hell up!

:spank:

[Eric J in MN]

36. Have any pujndits talked about this? nt

nt

[kentuck]

37. I didn't see the debate but...

my wife said Cheney lied about 12 times... Cheney is a liar.

[The Magistrate]

38. The Night Turns Very Well, Mr. Pitt!

"Cheney Lies Like Rug!" is the clear headline.

"Will not tell the truth even when the truth might do" is the sub-head.

"The nation was treated to a dazzling display of lies last night as Cheney showed what experience in government is all about." is the lead sentence.

The truth is that the right has too much contempt for the people, and under-rates them substantially: rightists really do imagine themselves aristocrats and the people as a mere peaant rabble. It is true enough "no one ever went broke under-estimating the intelligence of the American people," but they really are not quite as stupid as all that. My instruction to my daughter on the subject of boys, who she is convinced are very stupid, runs along that line: "They are indeed stupid, dear, but not quite so stupid as they look, and in that gap they find a great deal of room for manouver...."

"LET'S GO GET THOSE BUSH BASTARDS!"

[Stephanie]

39. Americans are quite sure he said it

Almost half of them believe that there is a connection, because they thought they heard this Administration say that it was true.

[norml]

40. Cheney also lied when he said Zarqawi was in Baghdad now.

Musab Al Zarqawi is in Fallujah,not Baghdad.

[incapsulated]

41. Biggest lie of the debate

And he did little else but lie, so that's saying something.

[DeepModem Mom]

42. kick

[ScreamingMeemie]

43. This one point is what will do this administration in.

Flops that they are. I cannot believe they think they can run on a platform of intimidation and fear. The Dark Ages are soon to end. :hi:

[Flammable Materials]

44. Wow, Cheney just wrote Kerry's next ad for him!

He really should phone Dick up and thank him for that.

[depakid]

45. How do you fight a pathological liar?

How do you debate a coward? What can you say?

Krugman like all but threw up his arms after his "bout" with O'Lie-ly and said as much.

I mean, really, what can you do, other than trust in a jury of your peers.

[sugarcookie]

46. F/911 ?

I could be wrong...but I watched F9/11 last night and I could swear they showed him say saying it on there. Going to watch again real quick.

On edit: Okay, I watched the clip and he was on "Meet the Press" The clip showed him saying "There was a relationship between Iraq and Al Quaeda" I think this clip came from the same show as the transcript in post below.

[0007]

47. Great article. "TruthOut" Same way I saw the debate.

Cheney did win the debate on misconstruing the issues and lying about the facts and acting like a VIP that is concerned with humanity.

Like in the Mohammad Ali fight with Sonny Liston. John Edwards was to fast and smooth for the political world to see the knockout punch on Cheney.

The only flaw in John Edwards that I observed was that he never brought up the secrecy of the Energy Papers. I would have loved to witnessed that exchange.

Thanks Will!

[GiovanniC]

48. I HAVE IT!

CHENEY'S DEBATE QUOTE: "The senator has got his facts wrong. I have not suggested there's a connection between Iraq and 9/11."



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

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.

[MrBenchley]

49. So then what IS the justification for the war...

Deadheart Dick claims he never said there's a link to 9/11....Chimpy claims he never used the word imminent....

Hard to say it's NOT the wrong war in the wrong time in the wrong place when the guys who got us into it won't stand behind the claims they made for why we're in it.

[Peanut Gallery]

50. from Factcheck.org

Getting it wrong about combat pay, Halliburton, and FactCheck.org

http://www.factcheck.org/article.aspx?docID=272

"...Cheney said Edwards 'has got his facts wrong. I have not suggested there's a connection between Iraq and 9/11.' But The Washington Post reported Oct. 6 that Cheney often 'skated close to the line in ways that may have certainly left that impression on viewers,' especially by repeatedly citing the possibility that hijacker Mohamed Atta met with an Iraqi official, a theory disputed by the 9/11 Commission..."
(more)

This is a pretty good analysis of the information presented in the debates last night - there's also a thread on this elsewhere in this forum.

[GOPBasher]

52. But I thought Kerry was the flip-flopper?????

:shrug:

[A-Schwarzenegger]

53. Isn't it more important to make him & W admit again & again

that there was no connection between Saddam & 9-11,
that they never said that there was such a connection,
and that Cheney never even SUGGESTED such a connection,
rather than simply catching them in another lie?