'No link
between Saddam and al-Qaeda'
From
correspondents in Washington
March 14, 2008
10:14am
Article from:
Agence France-Presse
A DETAILED
Pentagon study confirms there was no direct link between late Iraqi leader
Saddam Hussein and the al-Qaeda network, debunking a claim President George W
Bush's administration used to justify invading Iraq.
Coming five
years after the start of the war in Iraq, the study of 600,000 official Iraqi
documents and thousands of hours of interrogations of former Saddam Hussein
colleagues "found no smoking gun (ie direct connection) between Saddam's
Iraq and al-Qaeda," said the study, quoted in US media today.
The US administration appeared to bury the release of the study, making it
available only at individual request and by mail - instead of posting it on the
internet or handing it out to reporters.
A Pentagon spokesman said he did not know why the Joint Forces Command was not
posting the report online, but denied that it was an attempt to limit its
distribution.
"We don't have a reason to do so. I think when you see the report it will
show a Nazi-esque catalogue of Saddam's ties to terror, both within his own
country and elsewhere in the Middle East," said Pentagon press secretary
Geoff Morrell.
Previous reports by the blue-ribbon September 11 commission and the Pentagon's
inspector general in 2007 reached the same conclusion that there were no ties
between Saddam and al-Qaeda but none had access to as much information.
"The Iraqi Perspective Project review of captured Iraqi documents
uncovered strong evidence that links the regime of Saddam Hussein to regional
and global terrorism," said a summary of the Pentagon study to which
America's ABC News provided a link on its website.
"State terrorism became a routine tool of state power" but "the
predominant target of Iraqi state terror operations were Iraqi citizens,"
the summary said.
ABC reported the study initially was to be posted on the US military's website
accompanied by a background briefing with the study's authors.
But the Pentagon scrapped those plans and took the unusual step of offering
only to send the report by mail to those who asked for it.
Bush, Vice-President Dick Cheney and top aides have insisted there were links
between Saddam and al-Qaeda, citing the alleged ties as a rationale for going
to war in Iraq.
"The reason I keep insisting that there was a relationship between Iraq
and Saddam and al-Qaeda is because there was a relationship between Iraq and
al-Qaeda," Bush said in June 2004.
The study says Saddam Hussein's regime did not have clear ties to al-Qaeda,
which was responsible for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States,
but had associations with other terror groups including Palestinian militants.
The regime "often co-operated directly, albeit cautiously, with terrorist
groups when they believed such groups could help advance Iraq's long-term
goals," it said.
"The regime carefully recorded its connections to Palestinian terrorist
organisations in numerous government memos.
"One such example documents Iraqi financial support to families of suicide
bombers in Gaza and the West Bank," the study said.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23373592-401,00.html#
