Fabricated Story in Al-Akhbar Newspaper
In a press release issuedon Thursday, US embassy in Lebanon said that the article published on Wednesday by al-Akhbar daily was completely untrue and John Hannah did not give the newspaper any statements.
The statement read, "on Wednesday, February 25, 2009, Al-Akhbar published an editorial entitled: “Cheney’s Assistant to Al-Akhbar: Our Disappointment in the Cedar Revolution is Big”.
The article supposedly conveyed comments by Mr. John Hannah, who previously served as Assistant for National Security Affairs to former U.S. Vice President Cheney. In the article, Al-Akhbar claims its reporter spoke to Mr. Hannah in Jordan recently.
"This article is entirely fabricated. John Hannah was never interviewed by Al-Akhbar. He has not traveled to Jordan recently. The remarks attributed to him, to former Vice President Cheney and others are false." read the statement.
The statement ended by the US embassy calling on Al-Akhbar "to issue a retraction of this fabricated story."