Reply #11: Levin went after Cheney... [View All]

BLITZER: All right. I want to move on and get to this issue of Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda.

The 9/11 Commission, Senator Levin, concluded -- and I'll read the quote specifically what they said -- "We have no credible evidence that Iraq and al Qaeda cooperated on attacks against the United States."

I assume that is consistent with everything you've learned in the course of your own investigations as a member of the Intelligence Committee and the Armed Services Committee.

LEVIN: That is consistent. And I find it, frankly, shocking that the exaggerations of the administration before the war relative to that connection continue to this day.

We still have Vice President Cheney, as recently as three days ago on NBC, saying that we don't know whether there was any such relationship. And he even denied that the staff of the 9/11 Commission found just in the last few weeks that there was no relationship, saying, "No, no. All they said is that there's no evidence." That's not accurate. They found that there was no relationship.

And also, he even denied that he said what he did say prior to the war. When he said, prior to the war, that a meeting, a key meeting which alleged to have taken place but apparently never took place in Prague between the Iraq intelligence and the lead hijacker, Mr. Atta, he said was pretty well confirmed. He said that, and it's on tape, before the war. And now he denies that he ever said that that meeting was pretty well confirmed.

I find that amazing, frankly.