Outrageous Cheney Quote

NRO Online: The Corner ^ | 9/15/03 | Ramesh Ponnuru

[browardchad]

OUTRAGEOUS CHENEY QUOTE [Ramesh Ponnuru]

My eyes just about popped out of my head when I read this passage from a front-page story in the Washington Post today: "Cheney was less forthcoming when asked about Saudi Arabia's ties to al Qaeda and the Sept. 11 hijackers. 'I don't want to speculate,' he said, adding that Sept. 11 is 'over with now, it's done, it's history and we can put it behind us.'"

I was going to write an attack on Cheney for Corner readers, but I figured I should check the transcript of Cheney's remarks to make sure he hadn't been taken out of context--especially after I saw that Dana Milbank was one of the authors of the Post article.

Good thing I did.

On Meet the Press yesterday, Tim Russert asked Cheney about "reports that the investigation Congress did does show a link between the Saudi government and the hijackers but that it will not be released to the public."

Here's what Cheney actually said: "I don't want to speculate on that, Tim, partly because I was involved in reviewing those pages. It was the judgment of our senior intelligence officials, both CIA and FBI that that material needed to remain classified. At some point, we may be able to declassify it, but there are ongoing investigations that might be affected by that release, and for that reason, we kept it classified. The committee knows what's in there. They helped to prepare it. So it hasn't been kept secret from the Congress, but from the standpoint of our ongoing investigations, we needed to do that.

"One of the things this points out that’s important for us to understand—so there’s this great temptation to look at these events as [discrete] events. We got hit on 9/11. So we can go and investigate it. It’s over with now. It’s done. It’s history and put it behind us.

"From our perspective, trying to deal with this continuing campaign of terror, if you will, the war on terror that we’re engaged in, this is a continuing enterprise. The people that were involved in some of those activities before 9/11 are still out there. We learn more and more as we capture people, detain people, get access to records and so forth that this is a continuing enterprise and, therefore, we do need to be careful when we look at things like 9/11, the commission report from 9/11, not to jeopardize our capacity to deal with this threat going forward in the interest of putting that information that’s interesting that relates to the period of time before that. These are continuing requirements on our part, and we have to be sensitive to that."

In other words, Cheney was saying more or less the exact opposite of what the Post made him out to be saying, denying the very proposition they attributed to him.

[browardchad]

You might want to add this to your Mainstream Media Shenanigans ping list.

[mattdono]

Dana Milbank is a used douch-bag.

[July 4th]

Bump on this!

[Uncle Miltie]

Nonetheless, the Administration appears to be handling the Saudis with kid gloves. The best I can read into that is that they quietly back the anti-Al-Qaida princes against the Al-Qaida princes, so as not to start a civil war. From the outside, it just looks like coddling of terrorists.

Hellooooooo Karl Rove! IT LOOKS LIKE THE CODDLING OF TERRORISTS!

[dead]

They definitely dowded the quote.

[piasa]

For future reference- no doubt this misquote will be repeated often by the folks on the left as election day nears.

[ex-snook]

"From our perspective, trying to deal with this continuing campaign of terror, if you will, the war on terror that we’re engaged in, this is a continuing enterprise."

Knocking down the civilian World Trade Center was terrorism. Killing our military troops is guerilla warfare.

[KC_Conspirator]

Dana Milibank is a vicious lair that ought to be sued.

[mattdono]

You're right, I'm sorry...he just looks like a used douch-bag.

Thanks for correcting me.

[livius]

Agreed. Dana definitely needs to be called on this one.

[dagnabbit]

Cheney is covering for the House of Saud.

Senator Shelby, who's seen thousands of intelligence reports over the years, described the 28 pages of Saudi material as "90 percent releasable".

At what point dos this administration's covering for their precious House of Saud becomes "Accessory after the fact" to 9-11.

[swarthyguy]

Point. September 12 2001.

[Miss Marple]

Every story about the Administration from the Washington Post should first be checked to see if Dana Milbank had any input. He has been after President Bush from the beginning. Anyone who doubts this should read Fighting Back by Bill Sammon. Milbank consistantly mocked and criticized President Bush from the beginning. Milbank is despicable.

[Peach]

Let them know how you feel at the Washington Post.

(202) 334-7582 OR ombudsman@washpost.com

[aruanan]

Good catch! Thanks. I'm sending this off to Don and Roma at WLSAM. They like to point out stuff like this.

[Peach]

Here's a case of press bias, spin and outright lying that you may wish to send to your ping group.

[Peach]

FNC addressing this matter now. Even they did not give the entire answer to the question(s) about Saudia Arabia.

To contact Washington Post: (202) 334-7582 OR ombudsman@washpost.com

[B Knotts]

Wow. That one is pretty blatant. But nothing the Post does surprises me anymore. Or the NY Times. Or LA Times., etc., etc.

[Lady Heron]

To be honest I think the administration has gotten back at the saudis with taking over Iraq, the leaving of the US military from Saudi Arabia and leaving them to deal with the churning islamic mess in their own country.

Without saying a word against them and securing an other supply of oil for the world, Saudia Arabia can fall apart from the inside with a little clandestine help. It then can be surrounded and contained to keep it from exporting terrorist. Just my quess, and probably not worth a dime, but it seems the most logical view of what has happened. Why else withdraw the US army the minute Iraq is seccured.