Teribus:

CHENEY: "It's been pretty well confirmed that he did go to Prague, and he did meet with a senior official of the Iraqi intelligence service."

Honesty check - is the sound byte selected by Olbermann a true reflection of the gist of that conversation?? I certainly don't think it is.

It doesn't cover the full conversation (e.g. it leaves out Woolsey's Salman Pak comments, which I'd note Cheney didn't take the opportunity to disagree with), but it pretty well sums up what Cheney said in that sentence. Cheney said he didn't know whether Atta and the Iraqi agent were discussing the price of tea in Sri Lanka or upcoming hijackings. But neither did the shortened sentence indicate this. It left it up to the reader's imagination. Do you think it likely that Cheney brought this up because he had a fondness for Ceylon's finest teas?

Teribus quoting news accounts:

From the September 8, 2002 Meet the Press:
   
RUSSERT: "One year ago when you were on Meet the Press just five days after September 11, I asked you a specific question about Iraq and Saddam Hussein. Let's watch:"
   
RUSSERT on the September 16, 2001 Meet the Press: "Do we have any evidence linking Saddam Hussein or Iraqis to this operation?"
   
CHENEY: "No."
   
RUSSERT: "Has anything changed, in your mind?"
   
CHENEY: "Well, I want to be very careful about how I say this. I'm not here today to make a specific allegation that Iraq was somehow responsible for 9/11. I can't say that. On the other hand, since we did that interview, new information has come to light. And we spent time looking at that relationship between Iraq, on the one hand, and the al-Qaeda organization on the other. And there has been reporting that suggests that there have been a number of contacts over the years. We've seen in connection with the hijackers, of course, MOHAMED ATTA, WHO WAS THE LEAD HIJACKER, DID APPARENTLY TRAVEL TO PRAGUE ON A NUMBER OF OCCASIONS. AND ON AT LEAST ONE OCCASION, WE HAVE REPORTING THAT PLACES HIM IN PRAGUE WITH A SENIOR IRAQI INTELLIGENCE OFFICIAL A FEW MONTHS BEFORE THE ATTACK ON THE WORLD TRADE CENTER. The debates about, you know, was he there or wasn't he there, again, it's the intelligence business."
   
RUSSERT: "What does the CIA say about that? Is it credible?"
   
CHENEY: "It's credible. But, you know, I think a way to put it would be IT'S UNCONFIRMED AT THIS POINT."

So. "Credible" but "unconfirmed". Actually, false in fact, if you want to get right down to it.

As I pointed out, Cheney never denied a link. He denied any "evidence" (early on), but then added in this "evidence" (of the supposed Prague meeting) later.

He won't make a "specific allegation" ... and Brutus is an "honourable man".....

This gets condensed by Olbermann to:

CHENEY: "Mohammed Atta, who was the lead hijacker, did apparently travel to Prague on a number of occasions, and on at least one occasion, we have reporting that places him in Prague with a senior Iraqi intelligence official a few months before the attack on the World Trade Center."

Now Arne Langsetmo might consider the above to be an accurate summation of what was said during those two conversations - I certainly wouldn't.

Actually, it covers it quite well. The gist of Cheney's latest comments (as of Sept. 8th, 2002) is that there's reports of Atta meeting Cheney (and as Cheney says elsewhere [Dec. 9th, 2001]), this has been "pretty well confirmed").

The sound-bytes were selected by the media, Olbermann or by the Producer, certainly not by the Vice-President or by anyone in the Bush Administration. So who was putting the spin into the equation? Who was determining how the public would react? Not the Vice-President or anyone in the Bush Administration - they after all had no editorial control so it could not have been them.

But the sound bites point out quite clearly the "take-home" message that Cheney was trying to convey. If he thought they were discussing the upcoming MLB playoffs, I don't think he'd think it worth the bother to mention.

Cheers,