Reason
06-01-2009, 01:22 PM
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a3vvPsCY8pYA&refer=us
By James Rowley
June 1 (Bloomberg) -- Former Vice President Dick Cheney disavowed intelligence he once cited to suggest that then-Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein collaborated with al-Qaeda to stage the Sept. 11 attacks.
Cheney said reporting by the Central Intelligence Agency of collaboration between Iraq and al-Qaeda on Sept. 11 “turned out not to be true.” Still the vice president said there had been a longstanding relationship between Hussein and terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda, that justified the U.S. invasion in 2003.
“I thought it was strong at the time and I still feel so today,” Cheney said at a National Press Club lunch today in Washington. “There was a relationship between al-Qaeda and Iraq that stretched back 10 years. That’s not something I made up,” Cheney said, citing 2002 Senate testimony by George Tenet, then the CIA director. “We know for a fact that Saddam Hussein was a state sponsor of terrorism.”
On whether Hussein helped al-Qaeda carry out the 2001 terrorist attacks, Cheney said, “I do not believe, and I have never seen any evidence, that he was involved in 9/11.”
Several months after the Sept. 11 attacks, Cheney said it was “pretty well” confirmed that Mohamed Atta, one of the leaders of the attack, had met with a senior Iraqi intelligence official in Prague in April 2000, according to a Washington Post account. Cheney later said the meeting’s existence couldn’t be proven, the Post said.
The presidential commission that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks concluded in 2004 that meetings or contacts between al- Qaeda and Iraqi officials didn’t result in a collaboration between the terrorist group and Hussein’s regime.
‘Worried’ About GM
Cheney also said today he was “worried” about General Motors Corp.’s bankruptcy protection that was forced upon the automaker by the Obama administration. The bankruptcy plan calls for taxpayers to own more than 60 percent of General Motors.
“Once you get into the business of a government running a major corporation like General Motors,” political pressures “come to bear and not economic interests,’” Cheney said.
In an interview before his speech, Cheney said the U.S. will face “enormous pressure” to manage GM in a way that doesn’t cost jobs.
To contact the reporter on this story: James Rowley at jarowley@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: June 1, 2009 14:56 EDT
By James Rowley
June 1 (Bloomberg) -- Former Vice President Dick Cheney disavowed intelligence he once cited to suggest that then-Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein collaborated with al-Qaeda to stage the Sept. 11 attacks.
Cheney said reporting by the Central Intelligence Agency of collaboration between Iraq and al-Qaeda on Sept. 11 “turned out not to be true.” Still the vice president said there had been a longstanding relationship between Hussein and terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda, that justified the U.S. invasion in 2003.
“I thought it was strong at the time and I still feel so today,” Cheney said at a National Press Club lunch today in Washington. “There was a relationship between al-Qaeda and Iraq that stretched back 10 years. That’s not something I made up,” Cheney said, citing 2002 Senate testimony by George Tenet, then the CIA director. “We know for a fact that Saddam Hussein was a state sponsor of terrorism.”
On whether Hussein helped al-Qaeda carry out the 2001 terrorist attacks, Cheney said, “I do not believe, and I have never seen any evidence, that he was involved in 9/11.”
Several months after the Sept. 11 attacks, Cheney said it was “pretty well” confirmed that Mohamed Atta, one of the leaders of the attack, had met with a senior Iraqi intelligence official in Prague in April 2000, according to a Washington Post account. Cheney later said the meeting’s existence couldn’t be proven, the Post said.
The presidential commission that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks concluded in 2004 that meetings or contacts between al- Qaeda and Iraqi officials didn’t result in a collaboration between the terrorist group and Hussein’s regime.
‘Worried’ About GM
Cheney also said today he was “worried” about General Motors Corp.’s bankruptcy protection that was forced upon the automaker by the Obama administration. The bankruptcy plan calls for taxpayers to own more than 60 percent of General Motors.
“Once you get into the business of a government running a major corporation like General Motors,” political pressures “come to bear and not economic interests,’” Cheney said.
In an interview before his speech, Cheney said the U.S. will face “enormous pressure” to manage GM in a way that doesn’t cost jobs.
To contact the reporter on this story: James Rowley at jarowley@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: June 1, 2009 14:56 EDT