Does Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein provide assistance to Osama bin Ladens al Qaeda?
It’s a case the Bush administration has tried hard to make. “These al Qaeda affiliates, based in Baghdad, now coordinate the movement of people, money and supplies into and throughout Iraq for his network, and they’ve been operating freely in the capital for more than eight months,” said U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell in his presentation last month to the U.N. Security Council. During testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee in mid-February, CIA Director George Tenet added, “Iraq has, in the past, provided training in document forgery and bomb-making to al Qaeda. It has also provided training in poisons and gases to two al Qaeda associates.” These assertions, however, might be as good as the case gets for U.S. officials linking the terror network to Iraq. While some members of al Qaeda could be operating out of Iraq, intelligence and investigative sources said there is evidence the group also operates out of Iran and Pakistan. And while there is evidence Iraqi officials
