Heheh.
After missing an opportunity to be in this morning’s Washington Post, I moped all the way to campus. I had sad coffee and dined mightily on the bagel of despair.
Then I got a personal message from the BBC World Service. They wanted a blogger to discuss Osama death conspiracy theories. So, for an hour, or so, I was on the radio on the show World Have Your Say. About a half hour into the show (you don’t hear it), the producer came in on the Skype call and asked me to be on the Africa version of the show, another 15 minutes of recording.
Honestly, they did not need me. Their host was more than well enough equipped to challenge conspiracy theories, and he did so quite well.
Very, very cool. Hear that tooting? That’s my own horn.
And, by the way, why didn’t anyone tell me that I stutter and sigh a lot?
RJB
Skeptical Humanities 
Can you please provide proof that Al-Qaeda “took responsibility for 911” in the week after the event on September 11, 2001, as you claimed on the show? What communique or video? Because all I can find, and can remember from that time, is that OBL denied involvement in a public statement on September 16, 2001. (They did take credit for the Cole and Kenya.)
“Bin Laden says he wasn’t behind attacks”
http://articles.cnn.com/2001-09-16/us/inv.binladen.denial_1_bin-laden-taliban-supreme-leader-mullah-mohammed-omar?_s=PM:US
Are you aware of these:
VP Cheney in 2006 TV interview with Tony Snow (FOX News) saying they had no proof Osama Bin Laden had anything to do with 911:
The transcript of that quote, from the White House website archive:
“So we’ve never made the case, or argued the case that somehow Osama bin Laden [sic] was directly involved in 9/11. That evidence has never been forthcoming.”
http://classic-web.archive.org/web/20060422125407/http:/www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/03/20060329-2.html
Wow. We have a hard time even posting links in the comments.
I did not mean give the impression that OBL said that he took credit in the first week. Instead, my position on what came up during that first week is essentially yours. Indeed I looked at the same CNN article. He apparently denied it. But claims of responsibility came later, which was my point. No, I don’t think it was faked.
Your quote is more eloquent than you know. The excerpt in the movie is edited incorrectly. I read it and wondered “why is there a [sic] in there?” “[sic]” means that there is something potentially confusing, like a mistake, etc., but it looked grammatically ok to me. When you follow YOUR OWN LINK (go there and check!), you look further down, that “sic” is explained in the text:
Q Okay. A couple of things, I think a couple of minutes ago — I want to make sure — you said Osama bin Laden wasn’t involved in 9/11 planning. You meant Saddam Hussein, correct? That Saddam Hussein was not involved in September 11th?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Correct. Yes, sir.
Q Okay.
THE PRESIDENT [SIC] (heheh) CHENEY: Thanks for straightening that out. I didn’t realize I’d done that. (Laughter.)
Q Yes. Well, otherwise we’d have a whole lot more stories to deal with.
So, it seems like the person who made that video either selectively edited it, or, and this is more likely from an honest person, simply lifted and repeated a misleadingly edited version. At any rate, he was asked about Saddam, he answered about Osama. It clearly doesn’t makes sense without a slip of the tongue, which we all do, yeah? And Snow corrects him.
What you have just illustrated is a problem that often occurs in conspiracy theories. They repeat bad sources, and when you chase them down to the originals you find that the theories evaporate. This is why you look to outside sources for independent confirmation, not other people who agree with you.
At any rate, I’m glad that I was able to clear this up for you.
RJB
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