Connections between Hussein and Al Qaeda

Accuracy in Media looks at the repeated claim of "no connection" between Iraq and Al Qaeda.

It is frustrating to have to keep correcting the media. And it is even more frustrating when national television programs deliberately distort the evidence on a matter as important as Saddam Hussein's links to Al Qaeda. It's an old controversy but some in the media still insist on getting the facts wrong.

By the way, for some on the left, this is why people on the right "incessently" present this stuff. The record is "incessently" in need of correction, and people who should know better are "incessently" ignorant of the facts.

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Reporter David Shuster, who left the Fox News Channel because it was too conservative, did a report showing Bush and Vice President Cheney making various statements which he said had all been cast into doubt.

"Distortions" alleged include:

• Vice President Cheney said that there was no link between Saddam and 9/11, but that later President Bush started claiming that Iraq and al Qaeda are one and the same.
• the President and vice president made two crucial claims: First, they alleged there had been a 1994 meeting in the Sudan between bin Laden and an Iraqi intelligence official."
• 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta met with a senior Iraqi intelligence official in the Czech Republic in April of 2001
• On the eve of the Iraq War the White House sent a letter to Congress telling lawmakers that force was "authorized" against those who "aided the 9/11 attacks." "Yet the Bush Administration continues to say it never claimed Iraq was linked to 9/11," Shuster said.

At least Stephen Hayes of the Weekly Standard was there to offer a differing point of view. He pointed out that:

• Cheney never said there was an Iraqi role in 9/11.
• When Bush was twice asked if Iraq was behind 9/11, he said we have no evidence to suggest that.
• The issue for the administration, Hayes noted, was that 9/11 changed everything, and the risk from Iraq had become unacceptably high.
• Bush's exact words on Iraq and Al Qaeda were: "You can't distinguish between al Qaeda and Saddam when you talk about the war on terror." He wasn't saying they were one and the same, only that they were both involved in terror.

Even Hillary Clinton acknowledged the Saddam-Al Qaeda connection in her speech announcing support for the authorization of the use of force against Iraq in 2002. She said, "In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capabilities, and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort and sanctuary to terrorists, including Al Qaeda members." (emphasis added).

In 1998, the Clinton administration issued a sealed indictment stating that Al Qaeda had reached an "understanding" with Saddam Hussein. The two would not work against each other, and on some projects would cooperate. Presumably there was evidence to back this up.

In 1999, ABC reported that an Iraqi intelligence chief had secretly met with Bin Ladin in Afghanistan.

Reports of this type were common then. No one doubted Saddam's link to radical Islamic terrorists, including Abu Nidal and Abu Abbas, who had sought and gained refuge there. He also had links to Al Qaeda. Reports to the contrary are primarily anti-administration propaganda and disinformation.