This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
CIA and FBI Counter-Terrorism Officials: Cheney Lied About 9/11 Hijacker
Preface: Obama is worse.
Everyone knew that Iraq did not possess weapons of mass destruction (update here).
Dick Cheney admits that he lied about 9/11.
MSNBC recently noted that these two facts are intertwined:
Mark Rossini, was then an FBI counter-terrorism agent detailed to the CIA. He was assigned the task of evaluating a Czech intelligence report that Mohammed Atta, the lead 9/11 hijacker, had met with an Iraqi intelligence agent in Prague before the attack on the World Trade Towers.
Cheney repeatedly invoked the report as evidence of Iraqi involvement in 9/11. “It’s been pretty well confirmed that he [Atta] did go to Prague and he did meet with a senior official of the Iraqi intelligence service in Czechoslovakia last April,” Cheney said on Meet the Press on Dec. 9, 2001.
But the evidence used to support the claim–a supposed photograph of Atta in Prague the day of the alleged meeting—had already been debunked by Rossini. He analyzed the photo and immediately saw it was bogus: the picture of the Czech “Atta” looked nothing like the real terrorist. It was a conclusion he relayed up the chain, assuming he had put the matter to rest.
Then he heard Cheney endorsing the discredited report on national television. “I remember looking at the TV screen and saying, ‘What did I just hear?’ And I–first time in my life, I actually threw something at the television because I couldn’t believe what I just heard,” Rossini says.
Rossini gave MSNBC an example in an interview for the documentary Hubris:
Mohammed Atta was a sleight guy … barely 5’5 or 5’6, and skinny. The guy in the photograph was muscular, thick, and had a neck like the size of two of my necks. And I thought, “that’s not Mohammed Atta in the photograph!” But I sent it to the lab anyway, knowing that would put it to rest.
McClatchy confirmed in 2009:
Former senior U.S. intelligence official familiar with the interrogation issue said that Cheney and former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld demanded that the interrogators find evidence of al Qaida-Iraq collaboration…
For most of 2002 and into 2003, Cheney and Rumsfeld, especially, were also demanding proof of the links between al Qaida and Iraq that (former Iraqi exile leader Ahmed) Chalabi and others had told them were there.”
It was during this period that CIA interrogators waterboarded two alleged top al Qaida detainees repeatedly — Abu Zubaydah at least 83 times in August 2002 and Khalid Sheik Muhammed 183 times in March 2003 — according to a newly released Justice Department document…
When people kept coming up empty, they were told by Cheney’s and Rumsfeld’s people to push harder,” he continued.”Cheney’s and Rumsfeld’s people were told repeatedly, by CIA . . . and by others, that there wasn’t any reliable intelligence that pointed to operational ties between bin Laden and Saddam . . .
A former U.S. Army psychiatrist, Maj. Charles Burney, told Army investigators in 2006 that interrogators at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention facility were under “pressure” to produce evidence of ties between al Qaida and Iraq.
“While we were there a large part of the time we were focused on trying to establish a link between al Qaida and Iraq and we were not successful in establishing a link between al Qaida and Iraq,” Burney told staff of the Army Inspector General. “The more frustrated people got in not being able to establish that link . . . there was more and more pressure to resort to measures that might produce more immediate results.”
“I think it’s obvious that the administration was scrambling then to try to find a connection, a link (between al Qaida and Iraq),” [Senator] Levin said in a conference call with reporters. “They made out links where they didn’t exist.”
Levin recalled Cheney’s assertions that a senior Iraqi intelligence officer had met Mohammad Atta, the leader of the 9/11 hijackers, in the Czech Republic capital of Prague just months before the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
The FBI and CIA found that no such meeting occurred.
Postscript: Indeed the entire torture program was implemented in an attempt to justify the Iraq war. And the 9/11 Commission was set up with false torture testimony. More background on the Iraq war.
- advertisements -


Fuck Cheney, scumbag fellatist of the military-industrial complex. The young die in worthless wars while this walking corpse pockets fiat.
The absense of evidence is not the evidence of absense. Donald Rumsfeld.
I still do not know what that means
Rumsfeld gets a bad rap for comments like this one and "unknown unknowns." I think he really does understand the nature and limits of knowledge. What he chose to do with this understanding is a completely separate matter.
"The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" is absolutely correct. Just because we are not in the woods to observe the tree falling down does not mean that it hasn't fallen down.
Bottom line! They invaded a country and killed many tens of thousands of people with no evidence to support their aggression.
Perhaps when Rumsfeld and the other war criminals are on trial the standard of proof should be that lack of evidence of guilt is not evidence of innocence.
It was more than a million and that doesn't even touch the deformities that their kids are being born with from all the depleted uranium laying around.
No argument, but again, the point I was making that was that Rumsfeld did (and does) have understanding of knowledge.
And again, what he chose to do with that knowledge is problematic to say the least, as both of you have pointed out.
Known unknowns and unknown unknowns. You obviously know you do not know that one. Now what should scare you to death is that there are things he said that you do not know about and you do not understand them either.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiPe1OiKQuk
There are unknown unknowns...or something like that.
I see I am not alone in my thinking process. You tube search took to long.
i think he said absynth not absence but i could be mistaken
Obama=Bush no doubt. Now...I will piss on Cheney's grave someday...but meanwhile? We are told on a daily basis that there is no "law and order" or "justice" at all unless you rob the local mini mart....small fry! Will the people revolt all at once instead of just going "crazy" one at a time? We know that OCCUPY had the suits worried, more than we knew at the time. So a week long strike for July 4th is in order. NO ONE goes to work, everyone goes to their local courthouse and demands one thing....firing squad for wall street bankers. Oh well...back to my weed.
IF.....OWS AND TEA PARTY GOT TOGETER. Quit bitching about your differences and work on your 90% similarities. It would be independance day all over again.
OWS and Tea Party have already been hijacked and neutralized and so will any new political movement. Voters they fear, guns they know they can beat.
They don't fear voters. They just redistrict around the few that still do.
"Guns they fear, voters they know they can beat with riggable Diebold electronic vote-flippers."
There - fixed it for ya!
"Torture testimony" is so....so...Medieval.
Torture Testimony = Listening to Maxine Waters
Hey - they have my cajones in a vice, yeah, I'll tell 'em Santa Claus is gay!
Absolutely chilling. Thank God this could never happen under the current administration.
/sarcasim off LOL
This is the same level of 'proof' they use for signature strikes.
i.e. if you haven't got any, just make shit up.
If waterboarding is such a great way to get the truth, why not try it out on Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld.
When that's been tried for a week or two. have a go a Tony "war criminal" Blair.
Then send all four to The Hague for a proper trial
Fuck the Hague and the UN. Hang the fuckers right here in America under our laws.
Lot of talk about pissing on Cheney's grave, or his iron lung, and now your waterboarding. Hmmmm.... I see a confluence.
What's great about this is that, yeah, we know this stuff, but you do the work of actually getting us the MSM links to it. Much harder to refute for those still "in the Matrix".
So...are the feds going to arrest Bush & Cheney now? Tens of thousands of people died, trillions of dollars was spent... How about just Rumsfeld? Anyone? <crickets>
No
A guy in Florida is facing two 5 year charges of doing harm to the environment, 3rd degree felonies,. A state trooper saw him release 2 party balloons as he proposed to his girlfriend.
One of we the people's chances to defang the feral government is nullification of juries. Nullification of the feral government by ignoring their demands at the town, county and state levels.
Vince Bugliosi wanted to, and he knows something about mass murderers
Mohamed Atta And The Venice Flying Circus
War criminals and money-laundering bankers walk free, but don't you dare go buying a bit of marijuana or drive a car without a license. They'll throw your ass in prison.
What a joke this entire system has become.
Very nice McM, thank you for putting a point on it.
Reminds of a sad tale a brother experienced and told the local tavern full of travelers about one eve.
Basically to make this point; you end up in a radioactive utah jail for a week or two just waiting to see the hangman judge and you know one thing is for sure, it's not a joke. Them ancient prehistoric thinkers there in that place consider a small bag of weed a major felony and threw him in with all the other assorted felons. Moral of story. Never travel to utah because they pull over every out of state license plate just to feed the beast moar money, and that system is not a joke at all.
The entire rothschild/rocofeller beast system is a serious killing murdering for the profits of a few thing that is well beyond control when you can convince a nation to go to war with it's own people. Call it crazy babylon and more and more people are saying they are sick and tired of this carp. When a ship is sinking, do you start fighting amongst each other?
Hey, are those warmonger-puppets for the rothschild empire of dust getting their marching orders for more war to change the entire system again right now? Now, that is a joke!
Well, at least I can now drink a soda of any size I pleeze! (gave up soda a long time ago, the carbonation causes kidney stones -- ouch!)
only war criminals are from Yugoslavia, Central Africa and SE Asia.
Speak of joke, how many bankster is to screw incandescent bulb? None, is too busy screw little people.
Boris,
Also, can blame the dark if they happen to be underage... or the maid... or...
Boris, very nice ha-ha. Thank you.
May I ask question of your thoughts please.
Can all the good American people get together with all the good Russian people, and stop the banksters that want to always hate us all?
Very well. How much?
I doubt that "A lot of crap" is a Russian, but I'll give you an answer: never ask for foreign help when it comes to your Republic
the word is derived from the latin Res Publica = the Public Thing - and this means you, too
it's in your hands, to keep it or to lose it
btw your call "Can all the good ... people get together with all the good ... people, and stop the banksters that..." is actually the Socialist International's rally cry
Having said that - for the world it would be enough if the USofA would just roll back banking laws to former, better models - all others would follow suit, immediately
Central Idiot Agency
Full Blown Idiots
Cocaine Importers Association