CNN's Blitzer acknowledged error, cited Media Matters

Written by Rob Morlino

Published

Citing Media Matters, CNN Situation Room anchor Wolf Blitzer acknowledged that he made an error the previous day when he claimed that Vice President Dick Cheney “never said hard and fast ... that there was a meeting” between 9-11 ringleader Mohammed Atta and Iraqi intelligence operatives in Prague in 2001.


CNN Situation Room anchor Wolf Blitzer responded to a December 15 Media Matters for America item during that day's program, acknowledging that he incorrectly stated the previous day that Vice President Dick Cheney “never said hard and fast ... that there was a meeting” between 9-11 ringleader Mohammed Atta and Iraqi intelligence operatives in Prague in 2001. As Media Matters noted, Cheney asserted the now-discredited claim without hedging or qualifying on numerous occasions.

During the December 14 broadcast of The Situation Room, Democratic strategist Paul Begala said that Cheney “told us that Mohammed Atta, the leader of 9-11, had met with Iraqi intelligence. Our intelligence had told the White House that wasn't true. They said so anyway.” Blitzer responded, “I think if you take a look at how the vice president phrased all those contacts, alleged contacts, between Mohammed Atta and an Iraqi official in Prague, he was always a little bit more cautious. He was talking about reports, unconfirmed reports, speculation. He never said hard and fast, I don't believe, that there was a meeting.”

On December 15, during a discussion with Democratic strategist Donna Brazile and American Cause president Bay Buchanan, Blitzer referenced his discussion with Begala and said, “lo and behold, one website, Media Matters for America, points out there is a direct quote from the vice president to [CBS News contributor] Gloria Borger saying, 'I know this. In Prague, in April of this year, as well as earlier. And that information has been made public.' ” Blitzer added: “Paul Begala was right, I was wrong.”

As Media Matters previously noted, the claim that Atta met with Iraqi intelligence operatives in Prague has long since been discredited by a variety of intelligence officials and newspaper accounts. Moreover, the 9-11 Commission concluded in 2004 that no such meeting had taken place.

From the December 15 broadcast of CNN's The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer:

BLITZER: Yesterday, Paul Begala was standing where you were. He pointed out correctly that the vice president, Dick Cheney, did allege that there was a meeting in Prague between the CIA -- between Mohammed Atta, the ring leader of 9/11, and somebody from the Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein. I suggested, “Well, I don't know if the vice president said it as hard and fast as you're saying, Paul Begala.” But lo and behold, one website, Media Matters for America, points out there is a direct quote from the vice president to [CBS News contributor] Gloria Borger saying, “I know this. In Prague, in April of this year, as well as earlier. And that information has been made public.” Paul Begala was right, I was wrong.