You just didn't work it right, Brucie! I got this with "Dick Cheney" and "Iraq/al Qaida Links" - that's JUST with Dick Cheney's bullshit.
Speaker: Cheney, Dick - Vice President
Date: 9/14/2003
Quote/Claim:
"With respect to 9/11, of course, we've had the story that's been public out there. The Czechs alleged that Mohammed Atta, the lead attacker, met in Prague with a senior Iraqi intelligence official five months before the attack..."
Fact:
This meeting likely never happened, and Cheney knew it. Czech intelligence officials were skeptical about the report and U.S. intelligence had contradictory evidence, such as records indicating Atta was in Virginia at the time of the meeting; and the C.I.A. and F.B.I. had concluded the meeting probably didn’t occur. - Waxman Report
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Topic: Iraq - Al Qaeda Links
Speaker: Cheney, Dick - Vice President
Date: 9/14/2003
Quote/Claim:
“There was a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda.”
Fact:
"The chairman of the monitoring group appointed by the United Nations Security Council to track al Qaeda told reporters that his team had found no evidence linking al Qaeda to Saddam Hussein.” - NY Times, 6/27/03 "U.S. allies have found no links between Iraq and Al Qaeda. 'We have found no evidence of links between Iraq and al Qaeda,' said Europe's top investigator. 'If there were such links, we would have found them. But we have found no serious connections whatsoever.'" - LA Times, 11/4/02
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Topic: Iraq - Al Qaeda Links
Speaker: Cheney, Dick - Vice President
Date: 10/9/2003
Quote/Claim:
"[Hussein] also had an established relationship to al Qaeda, providing training to al Qaeda members in the areas of poisons, gases and making conventional bombs."
Fact:
"The chairman of the monitoring group appointed by the United Nations Security Council to track Al Qaeda told reporters that his team had found no evidence linking Al Qaeda to Saddam Hussein.” - NY Times, 6/27/03 "Nearly a year after U.S. and British troops invaded Iraq, no evidence has turned up to verify allegations of Saddam's links with al-Qaida, and several key parts of the administration's case have either proved false or seem increasingly doubtful. Senior U.S. officials now say there never was any evidence that Saddam's secular police state and Osama bin Laden's Islamic terrorism network were in league." - Knight-Ridder, 3/02/04
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Topic: Iraq - Al Qaeda Links
Speaker: Cheney, Dick - Vice President
Date: 1/30/2003
Quote/Claim:
"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."
Fact:
"In the judgment of U.S. intelligence, a transfer of WMD by Saddam to terrorists was likely only if he were 'sufficiently desperate' in the face of an impending invasion. Even then, the NIE concluded, he would likely use his own operatives before terrorists." - Carnegie Report, 1/04
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Topic: Iraq - Al Qaeda Links
Speaker: Cheney, Dick - Vice President
Date: 1/22/2004
Quote/Claim:
"I continue to believe. I think there's overwhelming evidence that there was a connection between al-Qaeda and the Iraqi government."
Fact:
“Three former Bush Administration officials who worked on intelligence and national security issues said the prewar evidence tying Al Qaeda was tenuous, exaggerated and often at odds with the conclusions of key intelligence agencies.” - National Journal, 8/9/03 "The most intensive searching over the last two years has produced no solid evidence of a cooperative relationship between Saddam’s government and Al Qaeda." - Carnegie Foundation Report, 1/04 "Nearly a year after U.S. and British troops invaded Iraq, no evidence has turned up to verify allegations of Saddam's links with al-Qaida, and several key parts of the administration's case have either proved false or seem increasingly doubtful. Senior U.S. officials now say there never was any evidence that Saddam's secular police state and Osama bin Laden's Islamic terrorism network were in league." - Knight-Ridder, 3/02/04
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Topic: Iraq - Al Qaeda Links
Speaker: Cheney, Dick - Vice President
Date: 1/22/2004
Quote/Claim:
"There's overwhelming evidence there was a connection between al Qaeda and the Iraqi government. I am very confident that there was an established relationship there."
Fact:
According to documents, "Saddam Hussein warned his Iraqi supporters to be wary of joining forces with foreign Arab fighters entering Iraq to battle U.S. troops. The document provides another piece of evidence challenging the Bush administration contention of close cooperation between Saddam's regime and al Qaeda terrorists." - NY Times, 1/15/04
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Topic: Iraq - Al Qaeda Links
Speaker: Cheney, Dick - Vice President
Date: 1/9/2004
Quote/Claim:
"Stephen Hayes did in the Weekly Standard here a few weeks ago, that goes through and lays out in some detail, based on an assessment that was done by the Department of Defense and forwarded to the Senate Intelligence Committee some weeks ago. That's your best source of information" on the supposed connection between Iraq and Al Qaeda.
Fact:
The article Cheney cited as "the best source" of information on the unsubstantiated claim of an Iraq-Al Qaeda connection was immediately discredited by the Pentagon, who called it "inaccurate." The article Cheney trumpteted also was condemned by the Pentagon because it leaked classified information - a "deplorable" act that does "harm to national security." - Pentagon statement, 11/15/03
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