Were Cheney, Gonzales and Hayden Lying About Wiretap Capabilities?
If Bloomberg News is correct in its June 30 report that the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping program started up to seven months before the Sept. 11 attacks, then why did the vice president, the attorney general and the new CIA chief say otherwise?
The Great Society:
Dick Cheney in an article in the January 4, 2006 Washington Post:
Vice President Cheney said yesterday that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks might have been prevented if the Bush administration had had the power to secretly monitor conversations involving two of the hijackers without court orders.
Cheney said if the administration had the power ?before 9/11, we might have been able to pick up on two of the hijackers who flew a jet into the Pentagon.?
Current CIA director and former NSA chief, General Michael Hayden, as quoted by CNN, January 23, 2006:
?Had this program been in effect prior to 9/11, it is my professional judgment that we would have detected some of the 9/11 al Qaeda operatives in the United States, and we would have identified them as such,? said Hayden, who now is principal deputy director of national intelligence.