Posted on 10/05/2004 11:01:00 PM PDT by Howlin
Tonight during the debate, Edwards said the following:
We went into Afghanistan and very quickly the administration made a decision to divert attention from that and instead began to plan for the invasion of Iraq.
And these connections -- I want the American people to hear this very clearly. Listen carefully to what the vice president is saying. Because there is no connection between Saddam Hussein and the attacks of September 11th -- period.
The 9/11 Commission has said that's true. Colin Powell has said it's true. But the vice president keeps suggesting that there is. There is not. And, in fact, any connection with al Qaeda is tenuous at best.
To which, Cheney replied:
CHENEY: The senator has got his facts wrong. I have not suggested there's a connection between Iraq and 9/11, but there's clearly an established Iraqi track record with terror.
Then, on the show after the debate, Brian Williams went through a rundown of the "facts" used by Cheney and he and Chris Matthews played a segment from Meet the Press from September 14, 2003, and BOTH of them declared that Cheney did, in fact, say that 9-11 and Saddam Hussein were connected.
This is the clip that they played on MSNBC tonight to justify their accusation:
Vice President Richard Cheney on Al-Qaeda:
"If we're successful in Iraq, if we can stand up a good representative government in Iraq, that secures the region so that it never again becomes a threat to its neighbors or to the United States, so it's not pursuing weapons of mass destruction, so that it's not a safe haven for terrorists, now we will have struck a major blow right at the heart of the base, if you will, the geographic base of the terrorists who have had us under assault now for many years, but most especially on 9/11."
Source: Meet the Press, NBC (9/14/2003).
Sounds like they nailed him, right?
Well, keep reading!
MR. RUSSERT: The Congressional Budget Office said that: “That the Army lacks sufficient active-duty forces to maintain its current level of nearly 150,000 troops in Iraq beyond next spring. In a report that underscores the stress being place on the military by the occupation of Iraq, the CBO said the Army’s goals of keeping the same number of troops in Iraq and limiting tours of duty there to a year while maintaining its current presence elsewhere in the world were impossible to sustain without activating more National Guard or Reserve units.”
Can we keep 150,000 troops beyond next spring without, in effect, breaking the Army?
VICE PRES. CHENEY: Tim, we can do what we have to do to prevail in this conflict. Failure’s not an option. And go back again and think about what’s involved here. This is not just about Iraq or just about the difficulties we might encounter in any one part of the country in terms of restoring security and stability. This is about a continuing operation on the war on terror. And it’s very, very important we get it right. If we’re successful in Iraq, if we can stand up a good representative government in Iraq, that secures the region so that it never again becomes a threat to its neighbors or to the United States, so it’s not pursuing weapons of mass destruction, so that it’s not a safe haven for terrorists, now we will have struck a major blow right at the heart of the base, if you will, the geographic base of the terrorists who have had us under assault now for many years, but most especially on 9/11. They understand what’s at stake here. That’s one of the reasons they’re putting up as much of a struggle as they have, is because they know if we succeed here, that that’s going to strike a major blow at their capabilities.
MR. RUSSERT: So the resistance in Iraq is coming from those who were responsible for 9/11?
VICE PRES. CHENEY: No, I was careful not to say that. With respect to 9/11, 9/11, as I said at the beginning of the show, changed everything. And one of the things it changed is we recognized that time was not on our side, that in this part of the world, in particular, given the problems we’ve encountered in Afghanistan, which forced us to go in and take action there, as well as in Iraq, that we, in fact, had to move on it. The relevance for 9/11 is that what 9/11 marked was the beginning of a struggle in which the terrorists come at us and strike us here on our home territory. And it’s a global operation. It doesn’t know national boundaries or national borders. And the commitment of the United States going into Afghanistan and take down the Taliban and stand up a new government, to go into Iraq and take down the Saddam Hussein regime and stand up a new government is a vital part of our long-term strategy to win the war on terror. America’s going to be safer and more secure in the years ahead when we complete the task in Iraq successfully, and we will complete it successfully. And whatever the cost is, in terms of casualties or financial resources, it’s a whale of a lot less than trying to recover from the next attack in the United States. So what we do on the ground in Iraq, our capabilities here are being tested in no small measure, but this is the place where we want to take on the terrorists. This is the place where we want to take on those elements that have come against the United States, and it’s far more appropriate for us to do it there and far better for us to do it there than it is here at home.
We talk about $87 billion. Yeah, that’s a significant expense. No question about it. But it’s going to be much more expensive down the road if we wait. And it’ll be uch more expensive—it’s less money, frankly, than the events of 9/11 imposed on us here in the United States.
MSNBC is doing EXACTLY what CBS did!
Bumping for tomorrow. Great catch, Howlin.
Did they play the whole clip? If not, they took Cheney's comments out of context.
bump.. we need to get this out.
They did NOT play the entire clip. The only part they showed was the clip in the top of the thread, word for word.
And Chris Matthews congratulated the video people at MSNBC for spending a lot of time looking for the quote!
They absolutely CUT out the part where he denied it.!
bump
Another freeper chews up Brian Williams and Chris Matthews just like Chenney chewed up Edwards. Looks like NBC needs to find a replacement for Brian Williams too.
Cheney rocks..bump!
I guess I never noticed who Brian Williams was before.
He is definitely one of the "runner-up" anchormen who never got to First Chair.
Brian Williams will be taking Tom Brokaw's place.
Good post! Mr. Cheney has always been someone we trusted in WY and believed. He has always bee a straight shooter, verbally of course, and quietly dignified.
*Good work, but please, post an msnbc email we can complain to.
I forgot to mention that freestyle is the one who FOUND the Meet the Press transcript.
ALL the credit goes him/her/whoever it is.........LOL.
Further, I believe that the DNC is swarming post debate on- line polls.
Great detective work. This should be put in breaking news IMHO. Another example of the Left's liberal hyprocracy.
These days, acts like this in the MSM is called "job security".
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