Source: WP

A GOP congressional leader who was wavering on giving President Bush the authority to wage war in late 2002 said Vice President Cheney misled him by saying that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had direct personal ties to al-Qaeda terrorists and was making rapid progress toward a suitcase nuclear weapon, according to a new book by Washington Post investigative reporter Barton Gellman.

Cheney's assertions, described by former House majority leader Richard K. Armey (Tex.), came in a highly classified one-on-one briefing in Room H-208, the vice president's hideaway office in the Capitol. The threat Cheney described went far beyond public statements that have been criticized for relying on "cherry-picked" intelligence of unknown reliability. There was no intelligence to support the vice president's private assertions, Gellman reports, and they "crossed so far beyond the known universe of fact that they were simply without foundation."

Armey had spoken out against the coming war, and his opposition gave cover to Democrats who feared the political costs of appearing to be weak. Armey reversed his position after Cheney told him, he said, that the threat from Iraq was actually " more imminent than we want to portray to the public at large."

Cheney said, according to Armey, that Iraq's "ability to miniaturize weapons of mass destruction, particularly nuclear," had been "substantially refined since the first Gulf War," and would soon result in "packages that could be moved even by ground personnel." Cheney linked that threat to Hussein's alleged ties to al-Qaeda, Armey said, explaining that "we now know they have the ability to develop these weapons in a very portable fashion, and they have a delivery system in their relationship with organizations such as al-Qaeda."

"Did Dick Cheney . . . purposely tell me things he knew to be untrue?" Armey said. "I seriously feel that may be the case. . . . Had I known or believed then what I believe now, I would have publicly opposed {the war} resolution right to the bitter end, and I believe I might have stopped it from happening."

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/15/AR2008091503064.html

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Impeachment?

They all make me :puke:

..also Dick Armey retired in 2002, and then gave strong signals to fellow Republicans in 2006 that maybe the republican party needed to lose because it had strayed so far from decency.

He didn't stand up and it is too late now to try to make a noise. Glad for the info he's giving, but it's diddley shit at this point. He wrote for profit, the truth is incidental.

jmho

To hell with Dick Armey and his kind.

The good news is that Cheney Inc., the Pentagon and Wall Street are going down as we speak. Their ways of doing business are finished.

has just gone on record stating that he is sufficiently gullible to believe the bald-faced lies Cheney lobbed at him. I guess wisdom is not a part of politics...sheesh, what a sap!

And I think it's reasonable for the House Majority Leader to believe that the VP would not lie to him to his face, in private.

Sweeeeet!

:sarcasm:

It's like listening to wet drunks at an open meeting.

Welcome, Dick!

:rofl:

and that Republican leader was obviously an irresponsible idiot; but at least he's opening his mouth about it now!

it was always one degree of separation through the Bush family, Carlyle, CIA, etc.

:think:

propaganda always has a kernel of truth

a trickle of truth here, a trickle there, all part of a stream of reality all released to allow them to say that all of this was known - so it's no big deal

this is all part of a disinformation campaign imo - psy opps 100%

That's true.

In fact those WMD where so miniaturized that nobody found them.

You know what? That guy was afraid of Cheney and is scared shitless now so

that's why he's spilling the beans.:puke:

oh what's the use

Didn't you hear about it?

The outrage!

Thanks So Much. I hope that DK picks this up for evidence in his pursuit of HR 333. :wow:

See, if Cheney is assigned all the blame for the war, Bush only has to sign one pardon. He doesn't have to pardon the whole Republican Party because Cheney did it all.

"Had I known or believed then what I believe now, I would have publicly opposed {the war} resolution right to the bitter end, and I believe I might have stopped it from happening."

I don't know if I can believe him on that statement. The rest I am sure is probably true we have suspected that since before the war started.

...on diapers?

"Had I known or believed then what I believe now, I would have publicly opposed..."

Beyond lame. Always has been

NoFederales

she was in the meeting and heard those lies, and doesn't want anyone to know that she trusted Cheney.

A GOP leader accusing the regime of lying to Congress. Really, http://www.democrats.com/pelosi-would-impeach-bush-if-she-had-the-goods">"the goods" don't get much better.

It's never too late or too soon to abide by your oath and defend the Constitution. But it's far worse than your failure.

Without impeachment, the bushcheneyists will continue to pull the puppet strings on people like McCain, Palin, Armey, Pelosi, Blue Dogs, and even those in the "scandal-ridden" Obama admin.

Impeachment remains our ONLY moral, patriotic option.

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