HEY! Unka Dick....remember this????

[No2W2004]

During an interview on NBC's Meet the Press (9/14/03), when Vice President Dick Cheney was asked if he was "surprised" that so many Americans connected Iraq to the 9/11 attacks, Cheney responded:

"No. I think it's not surprising that people make that connection.... 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. 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."

[Tansy_Gold]

1. He's only suggesting a connection, allowing the listener

to make the last jump, but cheney himself never says there's a connection between Saddam/Iraq and the events of 9/11. Does he imply it? Maybe. Have many people inferred it from what he *did* say? Almost certainly.

But at least in this snip, cheney does not say there is a link between Saddam/Iraq and the events of 9/11. A link with Al Qaeda isn't enough.

[No2W2004]

2. Cheney's quote from tonight:

"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."

To me, he is absolutely suggesting the link with this statement.