Cheney says no link between Saddam and 9/11
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
Dick Cheney says he doesn't think Saddam Hussein was involved in the 9/11 attacks. More than six years after the Bush administration took us to war in Iraq - after 4,310 Americans died there, and with U.S. troops possibly staying in that country for years to come - the former vice president says the Iraqi dictator had nothing to do with the planning or execution of the terror attacks.
Saddam Hussein is pictured in a file photo from January 2001.
Shortly after 9/11, Cheney was singing a different tune... Then he said it was "pretty well" confirmed that one of the leaders of the attack, Mohammed Atta, had met with a senior Iraqi intelligence official in Prague in 2000.
Nonetheless, Cheney continues to defend the Bush administration's decision to invade Iraq - saying Saddam's previous support for known terrorists was a real threat after 9/11. And he insists there was an ongoing relationship that went back years between al Qaeda and Iraq - saying that information came primarily from CIA Director George Tenet.
The former vice president is now explaining away the early uncertainty of the so-called Iraq-9/11 link by saying that intelligence gathering is "more an art form than a science." However, he failed to mention those Iraqi weapons of mass destruction that never seemed to materialize - another supposed reason for the invasion.
Here’s my question to you: Six years after the invasion of Iraq, how does it make you feel when Dick Cheney says there was no link between Saddam Hussein and 9/11?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Why does the GOP have such a narrow appeal?
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
Here's something that probably keeps the leadership of the Republican Party up at night: A new Gallup poll shows 89 percent of the party's rank-and-file members are white.
Cafferty: GOP will not gain favorable support if Cheney, Limbaugh, and Gingrich continue to spew "negative, hateful rhetoric."
This leaves only 11 percent of Republicans who are Hispanics, African-Americans or members of other races. These numbers are staggering and hardly in keeping with the radically changing face of the U.S.
That's not all - by more than two-to-one, whites who call themselves Republicans claim a conservative ideology, and about half of them say they're strongly religious.
Compare that to Democrats - whose party is 64% white and 36 percent non-white. By a ratio of more than four-to-one, white Democrats call themselves moderate or liberal, and only 20 percent of them say they're highly religious.
Independents land somewhere between the two camps - with 27 percent non-whites.
These numbers pretty much say it all about the GOP's troubles; and leave little question why Democrats are in control of the White House and both houses of Congress.
The big question: Will the support of white, conservative, religious Americans be enough of a base for Republicans to start winning elections again? Probably not. The alternative is for Republicans to find a way to broaden their appeal among non-whites and whites who are more moderate.
And here's a hint: The way to accomplish that is probably not with the likes of Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich slinging around negative and hateful rhetoric.
Here’s my question to you: Why does the Republican Party have such a narrow appeal?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
How can Obama make the most of his speech in Egypt?
Pyramids on the outskirts of Cairo stand behind apartment buildings as security is heightened in city in anticipation of Pres. Obama’s visit on Thursday. (PHOTO CREDIT: CRIS BOURONCLE/AFP/Getty Images)
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
When President Obama speaks at Cairo University in Egypt on Thursday, he'll have a huge audience and the undivided attention of many of the world's 1.5 billion Muslims.
The White House hopes the long-promised speech and trip to Saudi Arabia and Egypt can help boost the image of the U.S. in the Muslim world. Under the Bush administration, many Muslims grew to hate America; with the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, the creation of the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay and the abuse at Abu Ghraib.
Our president has a chance to bring change. But the experts say Muslims want more than just words. The United States will have to follow up on the president's speech with concrete policy changes.
It seems that Mr. Obama is off to a good start. Soon after inauguration - he banned harsh interrogation techniques, promised to close Gitmo within a year, and gave his first formal interview to an Arabic-language network.
All this just might be working: A new Gallup poll shows that while approval ratings for U.S. leadership in 11 Muslim countries remains generally low, the ratings are up by double digits in eight of these countries, including Egypt.
Meanwhile, President Obama is indicating that he'll be more willing to criticize Israel than other administrations have - and is repeating his call for a freeze on settlements. And Israel is not on the president's itinerary - a pretty significant statement.
Here’s my question to you: How can President Obama make the most of his speech to the Muslim world in Cairo, Egypt?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
@jackcafferty on Twitter
Recent Comments