{"id":6320,"date":"2006-01-12T10:56:47","date_gmt":"2006-01-12T15:56:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=6320"},"modified":"2006-01-12T10:56:47","modified_gmt":"2006-01-12T15:56:47","slug":"why-americans-still-think-saddam-was-tied-to-al-queda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/why-americans-still-think-saddam-was-tied-to-al-queda\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Americans still think Saddam was tied to al Queda"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even now, nearly three years after the war in Iraq began, 41%<\/a> of Americas Saddam Hussein had “strong links” with Al Qaeda. Why? Because even now, nearly three years after the war in Iraq began, people like Dick Cheney are repeating discredited talking points<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cheney: …I hark back to testimony by George Tenet when he was Director of the CIA. He went up before the Senate Intel Committee in open session — this is on public record — and said there was a relationship there [between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda] that went back 10 years. What was never established was that there was — that — a link between Iraq and the attacks of 9\/11.<\/p>\n

Tony Snow: Right, and I’ve heard you and the President say that many times.<\/p>\n

Cheney: That’s right.<\/p>\n

Tony Snow: And you correct it any time somebody tries to raise it.<\/p>\n

Cheney: That’s right. And so what some people have done is gotten very sloppy and said, well, there was no link between Saddam Hussein and 9\/11, and then jumped to the conclusion that there was no relationship at all with respect to al Qaeda.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s like Groundhog Day with these guys, with the same rhetoric, over and over again, with little regard for reality and\/or veracity.<\/p>\n

We’ve been through this, how many times? All available evidence suggests, at the most<\/i>, there may have been low-level, episodic contact<\/a> between Iraq and al Qaeda. The 9\/11 Commission concluded that Saddam and Al Qaeda did not have a “collaborative operational relationship.” Saddam Hussein didn’t try and establish a connection to al Qaeda; he did the opposite<\/a>, warning his Iraqi supporters to be wary of the network.<\/p>\n

This isn’t complicated. And yet, Cheney can’t seem to help himself.<\/p>\n

When polls come out showing confusion about Iraq, 9\/11, and al Queda, I tend to respond by suggesting Americans need to take responsibility for being better informed. But it’d be a lot easier for the electorate to know the facts if our leaders stopped trying to mislead people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Even now, nearly three years after the war in Iraq began, 41% of Americas Saddam Hussein had “strong links” with Al Qaeda. Why? Because even now, nearly three years after the war in Iraq began, people like Dick Cheney are repeating discredited talking points. Cheney: …I hark back to testimony by George Tenet when he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6320\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}