Analysis of Public Statements made by Vice President Richard Cheney
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| The Bush Administration's Public Statements on Iraq |
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| Vice President Richard Cheney on Al-Qaeda: |
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| "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). |
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Explanation This statement is misleading because it states that Iraq is the "heart" of the geographic base for terrorists who assaulted the United States on September 11, despite the fact that intelligence officials do not have evidence that Iraq was linked to the September 11 attack. | | |
| The Bush Administration's Public Statements on Iraq |
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| Vice President Richard Cheney on Chemical and Biological Weapons: |
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| "Same on biological weapons--we believe he'd developed the capacity to go mobile with his BW production capability because, again, in reaction to what we had done to him in '91. We had intelligence reporting before the war that there were at least seven of these mobile labs that he had gone out and acquired. We've, since the war, found two of them. They're in our possession today, mobile biological facilities that can be used to produce anthrax or smallpox or whatever else you wanted to use during the course of developing the capacity for an attack." |
| Source: Meet the Press, NBC (9/14/2003). |
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Explanation This statement was misleading because it claimed the purpose of the trailers was to produce biological weapons without disclosing that engineers from the Defense Intelligence Agency who examined the trailers concluded that they were most likely used to produce hydrogen for artillery weather balloons. | | |
| The Bush Administration's Public Statements on Iraq |
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| Vice President Richard Cheney on Al-Qaeda: |
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| "With respect to 9/11, of course, we'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, but we've never been able to develop anymore of that yet either in terms of confirming it or discrediting it. We just don't know." |
| Source: Meet the Press, NBC (9/14/2003). |
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Explanation This statement is misleading because it describes a Czech government report of a meeting between Mohammed Atta and Iraq intelligence official Ahmed Khalil Ibrahim Samir al-Ani in April 2001 and states that there hasn't been more information on that, despite the fact that Czech intelligence officials were skeptical about the report; U.S. intelligence had contradictory evidence regarding this report, such as records indicating Atta was in Virginia at the time of the meeting; and the C.I.A. and F.B.I. had concluded the meeting probably didn't occur. | | |
| The Bush Administration's Public Statements on Iraq |
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| Vice President Richard Cheney on Nuclear Capabilities: |
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| "QUESTION: What do you think is the most important rationale for going to war with Iraq? VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY: Well, I think I've just given it, Tim, in terms of the combination of his development and use of chemical weapons, his development of biological weapons, his pursuit of nuclear weapons." |
| Source: Meet the Press, NBC (3/16/2003). |
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Explanation This statement was misleading because it failed to acknowledge the intelligence community's deep division on the issue of whether Iraq was actively pursuing its nuclear program. The statement also failed to mention weeks of intensive inspections conducted directly before the war in which United Nations inspectors found no sign whatsoever of any effort by Iraq to resume its nuclear program. In addition, it failed to acknowledge the Defense Intelligence Agency position that: "There is no reliable information on whether Iraq is producing and stockpiling chemical weapons or where Iraq has -- or will -- establish its chemical warfare agent production facilities." | | |
| The Bush Administration's Public Statements on Iraq |
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| Vice President Richard Cheney on Nuclear Capabilities: |
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| "He's had years to get good at it and we know he has been absolutely devoted to trying to acquire nuclear weapons. And we believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons." |
| Source: Meet the Press, NBC (3/16/2003). |
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Explanation This statement was false because the intelligence community did not believe that Iraq actually possessed nuclear weapons. | | |
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