Posted by
Saint Michael on Tuesday, August 22, 2006 12:28:17 PM
I 've been biting my tongue with Chris Matthews for a quite a while.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Nobody‘s ever suggested in this administration that Saddam Hussein ordered the attack.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTHEWS: Let‘s take a look right now at what the vice president said on the same subject.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: (inaudible) more and more that there was a relationship between Iraq and Al Qaida that stretched back through most of the decade of the ‘90s.
With respect to 9/11, of course you‘ve had the story that‘s been public out there, the Czechs alleged that Mohammed Atta, the lead attacker, met in Prague with a senior Iraqi intelligence official five months before the attack.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTHEWS: Well, there you have it, a complete difference there, the president saying we never suggested a connection; then you have the vice president saying quite furtively there was a meeting five months before the attack where the intelligence officer from Iraq met with Mohammed Atta, the lead suicide bomber of 9/11. It seems to me they have different messages. One says there‘s a connection, one says there wasn‘t.
Chris Matthews is clearly spinning this to make it look like a contradiction (i.e. a weakness for the administration that he clearly opposes). The President says "Nobody‘s ever suggested in this administration that Saddam Hussein ordered the attack". Chris turns that into "the president saying we never suggested a connection". The Vice President points out a clear example of a connection (one of many) between Iraq and Al Qaeda.
The reality is that there clearly was a connection between Iraq and terrorist organizations as the Administration has been stating all along. The administration did not claim that Saddam was behind the attacks, they claimed he had connections to terrorists (i.e. Zarqawi, Khurmal Training Camp, Salman Pak Training Camp, etc, etc). Combine the terrorist connections with the WMD (don't get me started on Chris and the WMD) and you have a recipe for world disaster.