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Re: Rundown 9-16-03
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8:00-8:01 Billboard:
Debunking Cheney: Cheney Justifies Invasion Of Iraq In First
Televised Interview in Six Months;
Cheney Claims Again Iraq Tried To Acquire Uranium From Niger;
Cheney Claims No Knowledge That White House Helped Evacuate
24 Members of the Bin Laden Family Days After 9/11;
Cheney Suggests Iraq Is Linked To ‘93 WTC Bombing Through
Wanted Iraqi-American;
Cheney Reasserts Already Debunked Mohamed Atta – Iraq
Connection;
8:01-8:06 Headlines
8:06-8:07 One Minute Music Break
8:07-8:58 Cheney Justifies Invasion Of Iraq In First
Televised Interview in Six Months
INTRO: In attempting to sell the reasons for the war against
Baghdad, Vice President Dick Cheney repeats many allegations
about Iraq that have been proven false over the past two years.
We spend the hour dissecting some of Cheney’s statements
in his interview with Tim Russert on NBC’s “Meet
the Press.”
In his first televised interview in six months Vice President
Dick Cheney went on the offensive to justify the Bush Administration’s
invasion of Iraq. In a lengthy interview on NBC’s “Meet
the Press”, Cheney portrayed Iraq as “the geographic
base” for the September 11th attacks. In attempting
to sell the reasons for the war against Baghdad, Cheney repeated
many allegations about Iraq that have been proven false over
the past two years.
Today, we spend the hour dissecting some of the Vice President’s
statements.
His comments on Niger's link to the alleged Iraq nuclear
program.
His story that one of the 9/11 hijackers Muhammad Atta met
with Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague.
What Cheney said about the Iraqi American who went to Iraq
after the World Trade Center bombing in 1993. There's a $25
million price on his head, when Saddam Hussein offered to
hand him over, the Bush administration said no.
They also did not include him in the playing cards of the
most wanted men in Iraq.
We also look at the U.S. authorized flights of the Bin Laden
family and more than 100 other Saudis soon after September
11th when all other flights had been grounded.
Cheney Claims Again Iraq Tried To Acquire Uranium
From Niger
INTRO: We talk to Joseph Wilson, the former U.S. Ambassador
to Iraq who traveled to Niger on a CIA-sponsored trip and
found no link between Iraq and Niger. Wilson also talks about
who in the Bush administration illegally outted his wife to
be an alleged covert CIA operative.
- Tim Russert questioning Vice President Dick Cheney on
“Meet the Press” September 14, 2003:
Tim Russert, Meet The Press: Now, Ambassador Joe Wilson,
a year before that, was sent over by the CIA because you raised
the question about uranium from Africa. He says he came back
from Niger and said that, in fact, he could not find any documentation
that, in fact, Niger had sent uranium to Iraq or engaged in
that activity and reported it back to the proper channels.
Were you briefed on his findings in February, March of 2002?
Vice President Dick Cheney: No. I don't know Joe Wilson.
I've never met Joe Wilson. A question had arisen. I'd heard
a report that the Iraqis had been trying to acquire uranium
in Africa, Niger in particular. I get a daily brief on my
own each day before I meet with the president to go through
the intel. And I ask lots of question. One of the questions
I asked at that particular time about this, I said, "What
do we know about this?" They take the question. He came
back within a day or two and said, "This is all we know.
There's a lot we don't know," end of statement. And Joe
Wilson--I don't who sent Joe Wilson. He never submitted a
report that I ever saw when he came back.
I guess the intriguing thing, Tim, on the whole thing, this
question of whether or not the Iraqis were trying to acquire
uranium in Africa. In the British report, this week, the Committee
of the British Parliament, which just spent 90 days investigating
all of this, revalidated their British claim that Saddam was,
in fact, trying to acquire uranium in Africa. What was in
the State of the Union speech and what was in the original
British White papers. So there may be difference of opinion
there. I don't know what the truth is on the ground with respect
to that, but I guess--like I say, I don't know Mr. Wilson.
I probably shouldn't judge him. I have no idea who hired him
and it never came...
Russert: The CIA did.
Cheney: Who in the CIA, I don't know.
Joseph Wilson is the retired U.S. official who raised questions
about President Bush's State of the Union claim that British
intelligence officials had learned Iraq had tried to buy uranium
in Africa.
Wilson is a former acting U.S. ambassador to Iraq. The CIA
sent Wilson to investigate the uranium claim and found it
highly unlikely. Despite this, the uranium/Niger claim became
a key piece of the administration’s justification for
the war.
One month after Bush declared that major combat operations
were over in Iraq, Wilson wrote a stinging Op-Ed that was
published in The New York Times in early July. In it he said
he had told the CIA long before the president's January speech
that the British reports were suspect. This set off a firestorm
around Bush's State of the Union Address.
One week later public syndicated columnist Robert Novak quoted
anonymous government sources as telling him that Wilson's
wife was a CIA operative working on the issue of weapons of
mass destruction.
Novak writes:” Wilson never worked for the CIA, but
his wife, Valerie Plame, is an agency operative on weapons
of mass destruction. Two senior administration officials told
me his wife suggested sending Wilson to Niger to investigate
the Italian report. The CIA says its counter-proliferation
officials selected Wilson and asked his wife to contact him.”
Lawmakers, including New York Senator Charles Schumer, have
decried the report, saying the leak effectively “burned”
the wife’s cover -- if she were in fact a covert agent
-- and are calling for an investigation.
- Ambassador Joseph Wilson
Note: We contacted the FBI yesterday. A spokesperson said
they are looking into the matter but would not classify
it as an investigation yet.
- Tape: White House Press Conference July 22, 2003
- Ambassador Joseph Wilson, speaking in Seattle on August
22, 2003
Cheney Claims No Knowledge That White House Helped
Evacuate 24 Members of the Bin Laden Family Days After 9/11
INTRO: Retired chief White House aide Richard Clarke revealed
that top White House officials approved the evacuation of
140 influential Saudis, including relatives of Osama Bin Laden,
days after the Sept. 11 attacks at a time when all commercial
and private flights were grounded. We speak with reporter
Craig Unger who broke the story.
- Tim Russert questioning Vice President Dick Cheney on
“Meet the Press” September 14, 2003:
Tim Russert, Meet the Press: Vanity Fair magazine reports
that about 140 Saudis were allowed to leave the United States
the day after the 11th, allowed to leave our airspace and
were never investigated by the FBI and that departure was
approved by high-level administration figures. Do you know
anything about that?
Vice President Dick Cheney: I don’t, but a lot of folks
from that part of the world left in the aftermath of 9/11
because they were worried about public reaction here in the
United States or that somehow they might be discriminated
against. So we have had, especially since the attacks of Riyadh
in May of this year from the Saudi government, great support
and cooperation in going after terrorists, especially al-Qaeda.
I think the Saudis came to realize as a result of the attacks
of last May that they were as much of a target as we are,
that al-Qaeda did have a foothold inside Saudi Arabia—a
number of the members of the organization are from there—that
there have been private individuals in Saudi Arabia who provided
significant financial support and assistant, that there are
facilitators and operators working inside Saudi Arabia to
support the al-Qaeda network. And the Saudis have been, as
I say in the last several months, very good partners in helping
us go after the people in the al-Qaeda organization.
In the days after the September 11th attacks, former vice
president Al Gore was grounded. Former president Bill Clinton
was grounded. Planes were forced down in mid-flight, including
one carrying a heart to be transplanted to a deathly ill cardiac
patient. American skies were empty. Yet at the same time 140
Saudis were effectively chaperoned out of the country. They
weren’t just any Saudis, among them were several dozen
members of the Bin Laden family.
How is this possible?
Well this month retired chief White House aide, Richard Clarke,
revealed that top White House officials approved the evacuation
of 140 influential Saudis, including relatives of Osama Bin
Laden, two days after the Sept. 11 attacks at a time when
all commercial and private flights were grounded.
Reporter Craig Unger writes in Vanity Fair that Clarke, who
ran the White House crisis team after the attacks, says the
FBI claimed none of the Saudis could be linked to the attacks,
which were carried out by 19 hijackers, 15 of whom were Saudis.
The New York Times reports that this is the first public
acknowledgement that the White House approved the controversial
evacuation plan.
- Craig Unger, reporter and author of the forthcoming book
“House of Bush House of Saud” (Scribner).
Cheney Suggests Iraq Is Linked To ‘93 WTC Bombing
Through Wanted Iraqi-American
INTRO: Abdul Rahman Yasin is an Iraqi American that Cheney
claims is proof of a link between Iraq and the 1993 World
Trade Center bombing. There is a $25 million price on his
head. But when Saddam Hussein offered to hand him over, the
Bush Administration said no. We speak with Yasin's lawyer.
In the case of Saudi Arabia Cheney said that it was irrelevant
that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi. But in the case of
Iraqis, Cheney used a different spin.
- Tim Russert questioning Vice President Dick Cheney on
“Meet the Press” September 14, 2003:
Vice President Dick Cheney: We know, for example, in connection
with the original World Trade Center bombing in ’93
that one of the bombers was Iraqi, returned to Iraq after
the attack of ’93. And we’ve learned subsequent
to that, since we went into Baghdad and got into the intelligence
files, that this individual probably also received financing
from the Iraqi government as well as safe haven.
Now, is there a connection between the Iraqi government and
the original World Trade Center bombing in ’93? We know,
as I say, that one of the perpetrators of that act did, in
fact, receive support from the Iraqi government after the
fact.
Cheney is talking about Abdul Rahman Yasin. He is listed
among the FBI's top 25 most wanted. He is accused of participating
in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center and has a $25
million bounty on his head.
But there is a lot that Cheney did not say about Yasin. First,
Yasin is an American citizen who was born in Bloomington,
Indiana. Second, the FBI questioned Yasin shortly after the
1993 bombing, characterized him as cooperative and then allowed
him to leave the country. But what is perhaps most interesting
is that when Yasin left the US he went to Iraq where he lived
for a year before being arrested by Iraqi intelligence agents
in 1994. Last summer 60 Minutes interviewed him in Baghdad
in an Iraqi intelligence facility. It was the first time he
was seen since the 1993 attacks. Former Iraqi Deputy Prime
Minister Tariq Aziz told 60 Minutes that twice Iraq attempted
to hand him over to the US, once in 1994 when Clinton was
President and again after the attacks on September 11.
Aziz said that in October of 2001, the Iraqi government sent
word to the CIA through an Egyptian government emissary and
an unnamed second government that Yasin was in custody in
Iraq and that Baghdad wanted to hand him over. Aziz said the
only condition was that the U.S. sign a receipt saying that
Iraq had handed him over. The U.S. again rejected the offer
with officials later saying the Iraqis were placing too many
demands on Washington in return for Yasin. Despite the comments
of Cheney, implying that Yasin shows a link between Iraq and
attacks against the World Trade Center, he was not included
in the Pentagon’s deck of the 55 most wanted, despite
the fact that he is listed on the FBI’s top 25 most
wanted list.
- Stephen Somerstein, lawyer for Abdul Rahman Yasin
Cheney Reasserts Already Debunked Mohamed Atta –
Iraq Connection
INTRO: Czech intelligence officials said they had a report
shortly after 9/11 that Atta met with an Iraqi intelligence
official in April 2001. U.S. media reports, the FBI and the
CIA subsequently revealed that the report was unsubstantiated.
We speak with New York Times reporter Chris Hedges.
- Tim Russert questioning Vice President Dick Cheney on
“Meet the Press” September 14, 2003:
Vice President Dick Cheney: 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, 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.
This story came shortly after 9/11, when Czech intelligence
officials did say they had a report from a source--a single
source--that Atta had met with an Iraqi intelligence official
in April 2001. Subsequent media reports in the United States
revealed that the source was actually an Arab student who
was not considered particularly reliable. The FBI investigated
and found nothing to substantiate the report of the meeting.
In fact, the FBI concluded that Atta was most likely in Florida
at the time of the supposed meeting, and the CIA questioned
the existence of this meeting.
Also, on October 21, 2002, The New York Times reported that
Czech President Vaclav Havel "quietly told the White
House he has concluded that there is no evidence to confirm
earlier reports" of the meeting. And it seemed that Atta
had gone to Prague in June 2000, not April 2001.
Cheney did not mention any of this on Meet the Press. Nor
did he note that U.S. forces had nabbed this Iraqi intelligence
official in July and that there has been no word -- no leaks
-- about him confirming the supposed meeting.
- Chris Hedges, reporter for the New York Times. In December
2001 he wrote an article for the Times entitled “New
Clue Fails to Explain Iraq Role in Sept. 11 Attack”
regarding Iraq’s alleged link to 9/11.
8:58-8:59 Outro and Credits
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Jeremy Scahill, Mike Burke,
Ana Nogueira, Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Parvez Sharma and Elizabeth
Press. Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
[Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Rafael delaUz, Gabriel Weiss, Johnny Sender,
Rich Kim, Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Jenny
Filipazzo]
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