Cheney and the Truth: Iraq

OK, lets go over what Vice President Cheney said at last night's debate.

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.

Does this even pass the laugh test? Read on past the fold, and let's see.

From Meet the Press on September 14, 2003:

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

From Meet the Press on September 14, 2003:

[CHENEY]: If we’re successful in Iraq, if we can stand up a good representative government in Iraq, that secures the region so that it never again becomes a threat to its neighbors or to the United States, so it’s not pursuing weapons of mass destruction, so that it’s not a safe haven for terrorists, now we will have struck a major blow right at the heart of the base, if you will, the geographic base of the terrorists who have had us under assault now for many years, but most especially on 9/11. They understand what’s at stake here. That’s one of the reasons they’re putting up as much of a struggle as they have, is because they know if we succeed here, that that’s going to strike a major blow at their capabilities.

VP Cheney has been the goto guy of the campaign and the administration in talking about the connection between al Qaeda and Saddam.

Let's shift to Afghanistan, Cheney said this at the debate:

Cheney: Here we are, two and a half years later, we're four days away from a democratic election, the first one in history in Afghanistan. We've got 10 million voters who have registered to vote, nearly half of them women.

Is he right? Well, if Mayor Daley ran the election, then yes - from Afghanistan Watch:

  • Times in their history Afghans have directly elected their leader: 0
  • Ratio of men registered to women registered: 58.6 to 41.4 percent [1]
  • Registered voters in Afghanistan, as of August 21: 10.3 million [2]
  • Estimated eligible voting population in Afghanistan: 9.8 million [3]
  • Estimated eligible male population now registered to vote: 120 percent [4]
  • Provinces in which registered voters exceed population by 40% or more: 4 [5]

So there is wide spread voter fraud, let's move on. Cheney said this at the debate concerning Iraq and Palestanian suicide bombers:

Concern about Iraq specifically focused on the fact that Saddam Hussein had been, for years, listed on the state sponsor of terror, that they he had established relationships with Abu Nidal, who operated out of Baghdad; he paid $25,000 to the families of suicide bombers; and he had an established relationship with al Qaeda.

Is this even believable? Does anyone know what he is talking about?

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This is the permanent home of Cheney and the Truth: Iraq. I wrote this post at 14:16 on October 6, 2004. This post is part of grubbykid.com, a weblog. If you liked this entry, why don't you read some other posts such as First time you met? or 2/3rds of Republicans lucky to have Cervical Cortex? Or you could go to the site archives or return home. All are good choices.

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