Friday, June 18, 2004
Stop deceit on 9/11 ties
Cheney misleads when he suggests Iraq is linked to al-Qaida attack
June 18, 2004
http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpter183855209jun18,0,5995941.story?coll=ny-editorials-headlinesA key finding of the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks puts the final nail in the coffin of the already widely discredited notion once used by the Bush administration to justify the Iraq war - the purported link between Saddam Hussein and the attacks.
This finding comes even as some key members of the Bush administration continue to argue that "ties" existed between the deposed Iraqi leader and the terror chief. So what's going on here? It depends on how you define "ties."
Cheney continues to blur the distinction between such contacts, which never generated any cooperation, and the discredited connection to the 9/11 attacks. The result: Many Americans continue to believe a linkage existed. So the criticism that the administration misled the nation remains valid. Cheney should stop trumping up a linkage that never existed.