The non-existent connection between Saddam Hussein and al Queda is obviously Dick Cheney’s favorite lie — he keeps repeating it.
Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday that Saddam Hussein had “long-established ties” with al Qaida, an assertion that has been repeatedly challenged by some policy experts and lawmakers.
The vice president offered no details backing up his claim of a link between Saddam and al Qaida.
“He was a patron of terrorism,” Cheney said of Hussein during a speech before The James Madison Institute, a conservative think-tank based in Florida. “He had long established ties with al Qaida.”
The man simply has no shame. It’s one thing to lie; it’s another thing to lie and get caught; it’s something altogether worse to continue to repeat the lie ad nauseum.
Cheney was making the same argument in April in a speech to troops in Alaska, in January on NPR, and in September on Meet the Press. He seems to sincerely believe that repeating an obvious falsehood makes it more accurate. It’s breathtaking.
And as Kos noted last night, even Colin Powell, Bush’s Secretary of State, has said the claim is false.
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell conceded Thursday that despite his assertions to the United Nations last year, he had no “smoking gun” proof of a link between the government of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and terrorists of Al Qaeda.
“I have not seen smoking-gun, concrete evidence about the connection,” Mr. Powell said, in response to a question at a news conference.
It’s no wonder so many Americans believe Saddam Hussein was involved with 9/11; their vice president keeps lying to them about it.