DICK IS AT IT AGAIN

I came across an article in the WashPost that included comments by VP Cheney in New Orleans yesterday. It seems he is still promoting the notion that Iraq and Al Qaeda DID have collaborative ties, even though the 9-11 Commission found none. The Post article says:

Countering the staff of the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks, which found no "collaborative relationship" between Hussein's Iraq and al Qaeda, Cheney renewed his accusation that they had "long-established ties." He listed several examples and stated: "In the early 1990s, Saddam had sent a brigadier general in the Iraqi intelligence service to Sudan to train al Qaeda in bombmaking and document forgery."

Senior intelligence officials said yesterday that they had no knowledge of this.

Senior intelligence officials had no knowledge of this accusation. Does that mean that Cheney is making this stuff up? or does he have his own intelligence service, maybe through Halliburton? Personally, my guess is that he is making it up.

I have been reading Bob Woodward's Plan of Attack. I used to think that the War on Iraq was largely due to Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and the DoD. I now lay MOST of the blame for the push to war on Cheney. He was the biggest hawk, pushing his own agenda against Iraq. It seems that Bush was very easily manipulated by Cheney's agenda. Powell (the only cabinet member who has ever seen combat, btw) on the opposite side was arguing for diplomacy and a slow pace to the war threat. Cheney was saying NOW NOW.

It seems that Cheney is now doing everything he can think of to justify his pre-war position. Really kinda sad.