Quotes of the Morning: Fun with Dick

“The President and I cannot prevent certain politicians from losing their memory, or their backbone – but we’re not going to sit by and let them rewrite history. We’re going to continue throwing their own words back at them.”
-Dick Cheney, November 16, 2005

“’Throw their own words at them’? Sounds like a fun idea..”
-Skippy

“It’s clearly established in terms of training, provision of bomb-making experts, training of people with respect to chemical and biological warfare capabilities, that al-Qaeda sent personnel to Iraq for training and so forth…”
-Dick Cheney, June 4, 2005

“A high Qaeda official in American custody was identified as a likely fabricator months before the Bush administration began to use his statements as the foundation for its claims that Iraq trained Al Qaeda members to use biological and chemical weapons, according to newly declassified portions of a Defense Intelligence Agency document.
The document, an intelligence report from February 2002, said it was probable that the prisoner, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, ‘was intentionally misleading the debriefers’ in making claims about Iraqi support for Al Qaeda's work with illicit weapons.”
-New York Times, November 6, 2005

“On Thursday in Cincinnati, Ohio, Cheney described Saddam as a ‘man who provided safe harbor and sanctuary to terrorists for years’ and who ‘provided safe harbor and sanctuary as well for al Qaeda.’
In Wisconsin on Friday, he said the ‘al Qaeda organization had a relationship with the Iraqis.’
-CNN, September 12, 2004

“The Sept. 11 commission reported yesterday that it has found no ‘collaborative relationship’ between Iraq and al Qaeda, challenging one of the Bush administration's main justifications for the war in Iraq.
Along with the contention that Saddam Hussein was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction, President Bush, Vice President Cheney and other top administration officials have often asserted that there were extensive ties between Hussein's government and Osama bin Laden's terrorist network; earlier this year, Cheney said evidence of a link was ‘overwhelming.’
But the report of the commission's staff, based on its access to all relevant classified information, said that there had been contacts between Iraq and al Qaeda but no cooperation. In yesterday's hearing of the panel, formally known as the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, a senior FBI official and a senior CIA analyst concurred with the finding.”
-Washington Post, June 17, 2004

“Please note that the previous quote pre-dated the one before it. Dick was apparently aware of the 9/11 commission’s findings when he continued his claims. In the past there has been a claim that the White House had evidence that the Senate didn’t have. Of course now, since the question of ‘What the hell are we doing in Iraq?’ has been raised, the administration claims that the Senate had exactly the same evidence as the White House when they gave Dubya approval to ‘enforce’ the UN resolutions (which isn’t exactly the same as war, but heck..)”
-Skippy

“A CIA report has found no conclusive evidence that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein harbored Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, which the Bush administration asserted before the invasion of Iraq.
‘There's no conclusive evidence the Saddam Hussein regime had harbored Zarqawi,’ a U.S. official said on Tuesday about the CIA findings.”
-Reuters, October 6, 2004

“With respect to 9/11, of course, we’ve had the story that’s been public out there. The Czechs alleged that Mohamed Atta, the lead attacker, met in Prague with a senior Iraqi intelligence official five months before the attack.”
-Dick Cheney, September 14, 2003

“Well, what we now have that's developed since you and I last talked, Tim, of course, was that report that -- it's been pretty well confirmed that he did go to Prague and he did meet with a senior official of the Iraqi intelligence service in Czechoslovakia last April, several months before the attack. Now, what the purpose of that was, what transpired between them, we simply don't know at this point, but that's clearly an avenue that we want to pursue.”
-Dick Cheney, December 9, 2001

“Borger: ‘Well, let's go to Mohamed Atta for a minute, because you mentioned him as well. You have said in the past that it was, quote, ‘pretty well confirmed.’ ‘
Cheney: ‘No, I never said that.’
Borger: ‘Okay.'
Cheney: ‘Never said that.’
Borger: ‘I think that is . . . ‘
Cheney: ‘Absolutely not. What I said was the Czech intelligence service reported after 9/11 that Atta had been in Prague on April 9th of 2001, where he allegedly met with an Iraqi intelligence official. We have never been able to confirm that nor have we been able to knock it down.’”
-Dick Cheney Interview with Gloria Borger, June 17, 2004

“Thanks for the great idea Dick (and thanks to Americablog for most of the quotes.)
-Skippy