9/11 Panelists Rebut Cheney on Information
By PHILIP SHENON, from www.nytimes.com
WASHINGTON, July 6 - The leaders of the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks on Tuesday disputed Vice President Dick Cheney's suggestion that he probably had access to more intelligence than the commission did about possible ties between the Qaeda terrorist network and Iraq.
A spokesman for Mr. Cheney, Kevin Kellems, said on Tuesday that the White House welcomed the statement, calling it proof that the White House had fully cooperated in providing the panel all available intelligence relevant to its work.
"We are pleased with today's statement from the 9/11 commission, which puts to rest a nonstory," he said. "As we have said all along, the administration provided the commission with unprecedented access to sensitive information so they could perform their mission. The vice president criticized some press coverage of the draft staff report. He did not criticize the commission's work."
In a related story, the White House said it was "pleased as punch" that the corpse of long-time drifter Ed Spittoon, 58, was found in Mr. Cheney's bedroom at his official residence. Speculation had been rife about Cheney's role in the drifter's disappearance ever since Cheney had told a Republican fund-raising gathering that "some hobos just need killing" and his assertion of links between al-Qaeda and America's homeless.
The White House statement pointed out that a bloody shovel bearing Mr. Cheney's fingerprints had already been found in a dumpster behind the residence, and went on to say "As we have said all along, the administration provided the police with unprecedented access to sensitive information so they could perform their mission. The vice president criticized some press coverage of the draft police report. He did not criticize the police work."
The press reports referred to appeared in the Washington Post last week under the headlines "Cheney Killed Homeless Man, Say Police" and "Police Report Alleges Veep Beat Drifter To Death With Garden Implement." At the time of those stories, a spokesman for Cheney insisted that the Grand Jury Indictment of the Vice-President on one count of first-degree murder "vindicated his version of the events"; today's statement urged the press to "put this non-story behind us."
In a follow-up press release, issued immediately after the announcement of John Edwards as John Kerry's running mate, Cheney denounced Edwards as "a man who's never even wounded a hobo, much less hammered the life out of one or two per year for the six years."
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