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. 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.