Cheney Unrelenting on War Policy
The vice president repeats assertions of Hussein-Al Qaeda ties and implies that Clinton repeatedly failed to punish terrorists.
By Peter Wallsten and Josh Meyer
Times Staff Writers

July 2, 2004

NEW ORLEANS — Returning to the controversy about Saddam Hussein's links with Al Qaeda terrorists, Vice President Dick Cheney on Thursday repeated his assertion that "long-established ties" existed between the former Iraqi dictator and the terrorist network.

Speaking hours after Hussein's appearance in a Baghdad courtroom on charges of mass killings and other crimes against humanity, Cheney offered a broad assessment of the Bush administration's fight against terrorism, saying that President Bush had made the world safer by taking "relentless action" and launching "a broad and sustained war on terrorist networks around the globe."

Cheney, addressing Republican supporters at the National D-Day Museum, also leveled implicit criticism at Bush's predecessor, former President Clinton.