Wednesday, October 06, 2004

See Dick Lie.

From Truthout:


"I have not," replied Cheney, "suggested there is a connection between Iraq and 9/11."

Hm.

"His regime has had high-level contacts with al Qaeda going back a decade and has provided training to al Qaeda terrorists." - Cheney, 12/2/02

"His regime aids and protects terrorists, including members of al Qaeda. He could decide secretly to provide weapons of mass destruction to terrorists for use against us." - Cheney, 1/30/03

"I think there's overwhelming evidence that there was a connection between al Qaeda and the Iraqi government." - Cheney, 1/22/04

"There's been enormous confusion over the Iraq and al-Qaeda connection, Gloria. First of all, on the question of - of whether or not there was any kind of a relationship, there was a relationship. It's been testified to. The evidence is overwhelming. It goes back to the early '90s...There's clearly been a relationship." - Cheney, 6/17/04

One could argue, perhaps, the definition of "is" on this matter. Cheney did not state specifically in any of the above quotes that Iraq was involved with 9/11. But the repeated claim that Iraq was connected to al Qaeda, a claim that has been shot to pieces dozens of times over, establishes enough of an Iraq-9/11 connection to satisfy a man who appears to believe that a frightened populace is a happy populace.

George W. Bush doesn't even believe Cheney on this point. An article by Reuters from September 18, 2003, had Bush telling reporters, "We've had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved in September 11." Bush was forced into this scramble because his Vice President had, again, made this discredited connection between Iraq and 9/11 on 'Meet the Press' the previous Sunday by claiming, "more and more" evidence was being found to justify the connection. It wasn't true then, and it isn't true now.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think we've heard Gerald Ford-level debate comments from both Bush and Cheney. (Ford said he didn't think the Polish people considered themselves dominated by the Soviet Union in a debate with Carter - I think he lost on that alone). Bush's statement "The enemy attacked us" is a WORSE blunder than Ford's, and Kerry's response was PERFECT! Kerry will probably win on that exchange ALONE!!

Cheney's foray into Ford's territory wasn't his obsfucating attempt to link Saddam to Al-Queida or 9/11 - it was his statement that he had never met Edwards until that night! That has been so easy to disprove that, to an undecided voter, it must cast serious doubt on EVERYTHING HE SAYS!!

BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!

Geoff said...

"There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe."

Did Edwards jump in Cheney's shit about the fact that there are substantially less than 30 nations in The Coalition now? Now that Australia/England/Poland are dramatically cutting their participation before the January elections, and all the reasons for the war have been thoroughly debunked, I don't see how Bush will be able to stand up Friday if the mother of a soldier KIA asks him a tough question.

Anonymous said...

From an article about the effect of Presidential debates:

"Answering a question about the communist enslavement of Poland, Ford said that the people of Poland were free.

"The backlash was instantaneous, and voters generally questioned Ford̢۪s understanding of foreign policy. The president̢۪s explanation that he meant they were free in spirit failed to halt the slide."

Geoff said...

Another glimpse came following a 1976 presidential debate against Jimmy Carter, when Ford asserted that there was "no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe." He meant to say that Eastern Europeans accepted no Soviet domination, but the words came out wrong. The media ignored everything else that the two candidates said during that debate and focused on Ford's remark, which hurt his campaign

Geoff said...

Another glimpse came following a 1976 presidential debate against Jimmy Carter, when Ford asserted that there was "no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe." He meant to say that Eastern Europeans accepted no Soviet domination, but the words came out wrong. The media ignored everything else that the two candidates said during that debate and focused on Ford's remark, which hurt his campaign