During tonight's debate, Cheney claimed he hadn't connected 9/11 to Saddam Hussein.
Oh…really?
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.
--9/14/04, Meet the Press
Jessica Clark is a writer, editor and researcher, with more than 15 years of experience spanning commercial, educational, independent and public media production. Currently she is the Research Director for American University’s Center for Social Media. She also writes a monthly column for PBS’ MediaShift on new directions in public media. She is the author, with Tracy Van Slyke, of Beyond the Echo Chamber: Reshaping Politics Through Networked Progressive Media (2010, New Press).