WH denials of 9/11/Saddam connection: A Clark setup by Rove?

[oasis]

With Clark emerging as a formidable opponent of the Chimpadministration, his Meet the Press comments about 9/11 http://www.fair.org/press-releases/clark-iraq.html are sure to be given a closer look by the media. Rove is getting out in front of the "revived" story by trotting out Condiliar and a host of others to deny they ever made the connection.

Rove is betting that Clark's credibility becomes "the story".

[displacedtexan]

1. rove is a checkers player

regardless of your opinion of clark as a candidate, the man is a chess player.
rove can't beat him unless he cheats.
don't 'misunderestimate' the bush cartel this time, folks! i predict that this election will make 2k look like a minor blip on the bfee radar screen.

[oasis]

3. "I got a call at my home saying "you got to say this is connected'"

And Clark says it came from the White House. This is powerful stuff if Bush meets Clark head on for the presidential run.

Right now, Rove has the media under his control. Clark may be the best a chess, but Rove gets to pick which game is played.

[fob]

9. Whooooppp! That'll cost you 10 posts for unsportsmanlike

quoting.

"I got a call at my home saying "you got to say this is connected'" And Clark says it came from the White House

First, I am still enjoying ALL the candidates and have not chosen 1 to give my endorsement to yet. With that out of the way, the rest of our show.

Oasis, that quote has been portrayed that same way in many threads here. I even thought that's what he said when I read it orignally. I ask that you go and get the full transcript, I think it was a MTP interview.

When you read it you will see the way the interview was transcribed, put Clark's answer to one question (it came from the WH), seems like it refers to a prior statement (I gotta call...). If you read the entire interview, you will see that Clark never made the statement you attribute to him.

Do yourself a favor and check it out, you don't have to take my word for it.

fob - leaning Sharpton

[oasis]

19. "Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting" provided that splice on the link.

I assumed the context was correct. Grasswire has also advised me that Clark cleared up that comment.

Thanks

[demgrrrll]

2. I'm trying to figure this out too. Cheney says yes, Condi says no

Cheney may or may not be on the ticket in 04. Something is up
and that's for sure but this doesn't seem planned, controlled
or "on message" which has always been their MO. My guess is that they know Cheney is about to get splattered with some very sticky mud and they are trying put a little distance between Dick and the rest of the gang.

[AngryYoungMan]

4. Cheney would never let that happen!

Look at Cheney's whole career, and his term as VP so far. In every situation, the cardinal rule seems to be that Cheney NEVER gets blamed, NEVER gets punished, NEVER even gets mentioned as the author of the fiasco (like his disastrous Middle East trip last year to name one of a billion examples). The man knows how to keep himself shielded. It's got to be the dealbreaker clause of every arrangement he makes.

[ChompySnack]

5. Don't you know

Those energy meeting papers are coming out, unless the Supreme Court puts a halt to it. That is the source of the shitstorm a' comin'.

Cheney will quit for 'health reasons' and take the blame for everything. Then get pardoned and hope his ticker lasts long enough for him to spend all his blood money.

The guy is scum.

[AngryYoungMan]

7. He IS scum, but he will never go down...

...or agree to a scheme that has him going down.

If the Supreme Court is the only force that can protect Cheney, then it will protect Cheney. Bet on it. Nobody has EVER outflanked that guy.

[grasswire]

6. oasis?

Clark clarified that statement about the WH and 9-11. He uttered two thoughts and people have connected them wrongly. He meant to say that the WH was among those trying to connect 9-11 to Hussein, and also say that someone phoned him to ask him to say that. The someone was not the WH. It was somebody from a Middle East think tank.

[oasis]

11. Obviously I have never seen the revised account of events you've stated

but the 9/11/Saddam story has resurfaced with different twists and turns just in time for Clark's media splash.

[oasis]

8. A mixed message involving Cheney-Condi-Clark would favor Bush.IMO.

[Jolene]

10. "The regime has long-standing and continuing ties

to terrorist organizations. And there are al Qaeda terrorists inside Iraq," he <bush> said.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said "Iraq and al Qaeda have discussed safe haven opportunities in Iraq, reciprocal nonaggression discussions."

And, he added, al Qaeda is looking for specific assistance from Baghdad.

"We have what we consider to be credible evidence that al Qaeda leaders have sought contacts in Iraq who could help them acquire weapons of mass destruction capabilities," Rumsfeld said.

snip

"In particular some high ranking detainees, have said that Iraq provided some training to al Qaeda in chemical weapons development. So, yes, there are contacts between Iraq and al Qaeda," said National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.

snip


http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/Iraqpolitics020926.html

President Bush Meets with Prime Minister Blair
Remarks by the President and British Prime Minister Tony Blair
The Cross Hall

snip

THE PRESIDENT: Well, all due in modesty, I thought I did a pretty good job myself of making it clear that he's not disarming and why he should disarm. Secretary Powell will make a strong case about the danger of an armed Saddam Hussein. He will make it clear that Saddam Hussein is fooling the world, or trying to fool the world. He will make it clear that Saddam is a menace to peace in his own neighborhood. He will also talk about al Qaeda links, links that really do portend a danger for America and for Great Britain, anybody else who loves freedom.

As the Prime Minister says, the war on terror is not confined to just a shadowy terrorist network. The war on terror includes people who are willing to train and to equip organizations such as al Qaeda.

See, the strategic view of America changed after September the 11th. We must deal with threats before they hurt the American people again. And as I have said repeatedly, Saddam Hussein would like nothing more than to use a terrorist network to attack and to kill and leave no fingerprints behind. Colin Powell will continue making that case to the American people and the world at the United Nations.

snip

<He contradicted himself below, but the man said it himself which is already documented. So for this administration to say that they hadn't made a connection is a bald-faced lie:>

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

http://www.thememoryhole.org

You see, this administration expects a fear-driven populace to be able to distinguish between 'connected to 9/11,' and 'connected to Al Qaida.' They're very well aware that Americans connect Al Qaida with 9/11, so it gets the desired result, which is fear--but wording it as they have, they can claim that they have never led the American people to believe that they've made a direct connection between Iraq and 9/11.

I just wonder if all those Americans who have supported Bush's war against Iraq because of their fear that he was connected with 9/11 appreciate the 'fact' that this administration 'never led them to believe there is a connection.'

We'll see if their spin machine works.

[DrBB]

12. The real question: Where does Cheney stand with ROVE?

If Rove has decided to cut him from the pack, this would be a classic Roveian move. Let him go way out on the "Stay the course on Iraq rhetoric!" limb--offer all kinds of signifiers that that's what's wanted from him before his Big Sunday Interview--knowing all the while you're going to pull the rug out from under him the next day by a Clever Roveian Reversal Play on the 9/11-Saddam connection thing. "We never said that. It was CHENEY. All that stuff about reinstituted nukes 'n' stuff. But we got ridda him! Nasty old snarling creep. See? Our hands are cleeeeeeeean. Nothin but Kompassionate-Konservative Kautious Internationalists here! We never even LIKED that guy!"

That's how it reeks to me.

[oasis]

14. Dump Dick and the Halliburton baggage along with him.Unemployed, Cheney

could do no worse than Enron enabler, Phil Gramm, who is now a Swiss bank president.

[Octafish]

16. Phil Gramm's running a Swiss Bank?

Which one? Phil's unctuous wife, Wendy, of ENRON BoD-FERC fame, is instrumental in tying the BCCI scandal directly to the events of 9-11. BTW: BCCI had Swiss money, used for buying POLITICAL influence in the USA, as well as in the Middle East, Latin America, Europe, Asia and other points of plunder around the globe.

Here's more on Wendy, now the Director, Mercatus Center — George Mason U (isn't that nice, a conservative school). Anyway, prosecutors every soon will be saying Wendy Gramm! Yes, the wonderful wife of that smooth-talking ex-Senator and fun-loving deregulator, Phil Gramm. Holy smokes! He's safe in Switzerland. What a nice looking nanny, too, Wendy!

Here's a citation and source from the Federation of American Scientists website.

Kerry subcommittee's BCCI report
(no copyright problems)

CAPCOM

Introduction

In the entire BCCI affair, perhaps no entity is more mysterious and yet more central to BCCI's collapse and criminality than Capcom, a London and Chicago based commodities futures firm which operated between 1984 and 1988. Capcom is vital to understanding BCCI because BCCI's top management and most important Saudi shareholders were involved with the firm. Moreover, Capcom moved huge amounts of money -- billions of dollars -- which passed through the future's markets in a largely anonymous fashion.

Capcom was created by the former head of BCCI's Treasury Department, Ziauddin Ali Akbar, who capitalized it with funds from BCCI and BCCI customers. The company was staffed, primarily, by former BCCI bankers, many of whom had worked with Akbar in Oman and few of whom had any experience in the commodities markets. The major investors in the company were almost exclusively Saudi and were largely controlled by Sheik AR Khalil, the chief of Saudi intelligence. Additionally, the company employed many of the same practices as BCCI, especially the use of nominees and front companies to disguise ownership and the movement of money. Four Americans, Larry Romrell, Robert Magness, Kerry Fox and Robert Powell -- none of whom had any experience or expertise in the commodities markets -- played important and varied roles as frontmen.

While the Subcommittee has been able to piece together the history of Capcom and can point to many unusual and even criminal acts committed by the firm, it still has not been able to determine satisfactorily the reason Capcom was created and the purposes it served for the various parties connected to the BCCI scandal. It appears from the available evidence that Akbar, BCCI, and the Saudis all may have pursued different goals through Capcom, including:

-- misappropriation of BCCI assets for personal enrichment.

-- laundering billions of dollars from the Middle East to the US and other parts of the world.

-- siphoning off assets from BCCI to create a safe haven for them outside of the official BCCI empire.

SNIP...


Despite suspicions about highly unusual transactions, CFTC Chairperson Wendy Gramm told the Subcommittee:

In terms of finding trading violations or Commodity Exchange Act violations that perhaps could support money laundering, we did not find any discernible pattern...o one has ben able to --at least other law enforcement officials have not been able to find money laundering in Capcom US, to our knowledge, as of now.(133)

Money laundering, as Chairperson Gramm testified, is not even a violation of the Commodities Futures Trading Act. Incredibly, it appears that the CFTC and the self-regulatory organizations have never even made a criminal referral for possible money laundering:

Senator Kerry. ave you ever specifically referred, or have any of the exchanges ever made a criminal referral for money laundering?

Dr. Gramm. We have raised concerns.

Senator Kerry. Have you made a criminal referral for money laundering?

Dr. Gramm. No. Not-- not specifically in that regard...

Continued...

http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/21capcom.htm

[oasis]

18. Thanks for the info on Wendy Gramm. Here's something on her spouse

hhtp://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/business/1607686

[ComerPerro]

13. Its amazing how much leeway the public gives this administration

We have 9/11, and suddenly we just have to blindly trust the administration even over what we see and hear them do and say?

Its as though we are supposed to belive that they never said there was a connection, simply because they deny having ever said there was a connection?

Fuck that.

Fuck them.

[Kahuna]

15. This actually gives Clark and Dean more credibility..

They have been saying their was no connection. Clark never said someone in the White House told him on 9/11 to say that Saddam was involved with 9/11. He said that The White House was trying to tie Saddam to 9/11 since the attack on 9/11. But he did not say that specifically on 9/11 he was contacted by the White House. He said he was contacted by someone on 9/11 but did not say it was someone from the White House.

On the other hand it makes the candidates who voted for the Iraq Resolution even more foolish and gullible.

[Octafish]

17. The baloon is goin' down and the ballast is a comin' off.

Sneering Dick Cheney underwent a complete transformation from Big Ass to ballast in just one news cycle. Great catch, oasis!

Turd Blossom won't hesitate one second dropping the heartless bastard over the side and to the sharks below if it will keep his pimply backsides in his leather upholstered chair and view of the Washington Monument. I fear for my country when I think of what this NAZI might do to stay out of jail!

Seeing this move made now makes sense. If they start out too slow — Condescenda's deputy, Condescenda, Tenet, Sneer...It can drag out to January. Give Sneer the ziggy now, label him the instigator and lone bad apple, and Bush's name will be as clean as a green bottle fly perched on a pig turd down in Crawfurd.

These fools know, once an honest Attorney General looks into the events leading up to 9-11, there will be many, many people going to jail for Treason and Crimes Against Humanity. In the obviously suspicious and violent deaths of Danny Casolaro and Jim Hatfield, I'd add Murder, as well.

[Nashyra]

20. Even if rove has the chimp coming out and saying there is

no connection between Saddam/911 and that he never said it, then he is still toast, it does nothing to make Clark look like a liar no matter how they spin it. Most people believe they were connected because of the Chimp, that will not change, but they will be pissed.