What Cheney Will Say... What You Should Know

Editor's Note: Dick Cheney is a habitual misleader, and there's no reason why he should stop during the vice presidential debates. Here is a list of some of Cheney's favorite misleads and the facts that show what he says just ain't so.

On Iraq

"[Saddam] provided a safe-haven for terrorists over the years ... he had a relationship with al Qaeda."

FACT: A new CIA assessment – which Cheney himself requested months ago – states, "there is no conclusive evidence that the regime harbored terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi." One U.S. official stated, "The evidence is that Saddam never gave Zarqawi anything." [Knight Ridder, 10/5/04]

FACT: The Sept. 11 Commission found no "collaborative relationship" between Iraq and al Qaeda. [Washington Post, 6/17/04]

FACT: CIA interrogators found "Osama bin Laden had rejected entreaties from some of his lieutenants to work jointly with Saddam." [New York Times, 1/14/04]

FACT: The chairman of the monitoring group appointed by the United Nations Security Council to track al Qaeda found "no evidence linking al Qaeda to Saddam Hussein." [New York Times, 6/27/03]

FACT: A British Intelligence report found "no current links between the Iraqi regime and the al Qaeda network." [BBC, 2/5/03]

FACT: "Nearly a year after U.S. and British troops invaded Iraq, no evidence has turned up to verify allegations of Saddam's links with al Qaeda." [Knight Ridder, 3/3/04]

"We're also working very hard to stand up Iraqi security forces, training and equipping the Iraqis so that they'll be able to take on the fight and be responsible for providing for their own security just as quickly as possible."

FACT: Last Monday, the Pentagon said that "only about 53,000 of the 100,000 Iraqis on duty have now undergone training." According to Pentagon documents obtained by Reuters, of the 90,000 in the police force, "only 8,169 have received full training." [AP, 6/10/04]

FACT: Last week, the U.S. military "arrested a senior commander of the nascent Iraqi National Guard." The commander was arrested on suspicion of "having associations with known insurgents." The move raised concerns "about the loyalty and reliability of the new security forces just months before general elections are scheduled across the embattled country." [New York Times, 9/29/04]

"America faces a choice on November 2nd between a strong and steadfast President and his opponent, who seems to adopt a new position every day."

FACT: Cheney opposed invading Baghdad before he supported it. In 1991, Cheney cautioned against U.S. troops advancing into the city, "telling a Seattle audience that capturing Saddam wouldn't be worth additional U.S. casualties or the risk of getting 'bogged down in the problems of trying to take over and govern Iraq.'" [American Progress Action Fund, 9/2/04]

FACT: "An examination of Kerry's words in more than 200 speeches and statements, comments during candidate forums and answers to reporters' questions does not support the accusation ... Kerry repeatedly described Hussein as a dangerous menace who must be disarmed or eliminated, demanded that the U.S. build broad international support for any action in Iraq and insisted that the nation had better plan for the post-war peace ... taken as a whole, Kerry has offered the same message ever since talk of attacking Iraq became a national conversation more than two years ago." [San Francisco Chronicle, 9/23/04]

"On national security, [Sen. Kerry] has shown at least one measure of consistency. Over the years, he has repeatedly voted against weapons systems for the military. He voted against the Apache helicopter, against the Tomahawk cruise missile, against even the Bradley Fighting Vehicle."