Re: Senators: CIA dismissed Saddam-al Qaeda ties before war

"Anonymous via the Cypherpunks Tonga Remailer" <nobody@cypherpunks.to> wrote
in message news:20060909213320.48E3F170F0@mail.cypherpunks.to ...
> WASHINGTON (AP) -- There's no evidence Saddam Hussein had a relationship
> with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his al Qaeda associates, according to a
> Senate report on prewar intelligence on Iraq. Democrats said the report
> undercuts President Bush's justification for going to war.
>
> http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/09/....ap/index.html

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20...2921-3401r.htm
The Clinton administration talked about firm evidence linking Saddam
Hussein's regime to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network years before
President Bush made the same statements.
.....
In fact, during President Clinton's eight years in office, there were at
least two official pronouncements of an alarming alliance between Baghdad
and al Qaeda. One came from William S. Cohen, Mr. Clinton's defense
secretary. He cited an al Qaeda-Baghdad link to justify the bombing of a
pharmaceutical plant in Sudan.
.....
The other pronouncement is contained in a Justice Department indictment on
Nov. 4, 1998, charging bin Laden with murder in the bombings of two U.S.
embassies in Africa.
The indictment disclosed a close relationship between al Qaeda and
Saddam's regime, which included specialists on chemical weapons and all
types of bombs, including truck bombs, a favorite weapon of terrorists.
The 1998 indictment said: "Al Qaeda also forged alliances with the
National Islamic Front in the Sudan and with the government of Iran and its
associated terrorist group Hezbollah for the purpose of working together
against their perceived common enemies in the West, particularly the United
States. In addition, al Qaeda reached an understanding with the government
of Iraq that al Qaeda would not work against that government and that on
particular projects, specifically including weapons development, al Qaeda
would work cooperatively with the government of Iraq."