BBC News Online looks at some of the contrasting views held by senior US officials and organisations over claims of a link between Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network and deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
US President George W Bush - 17 June 2004:
"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."
9/11 Commission - 16 June 2004:
"We have no credible evidence that Iraq and al-Qaeda co-operated on attacks against the United States."
US Vice-President Dick Cheney - January 2004:
"There's overwhelming evidence... of a connection between al-Qaeda and Iraq".
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace - January 2004:
"The most intensive searching over the last two years has produced no solid evidence of a co-operative relationship between Saddam Hussein's government and al-Qaeda."
US Secretary of State Colin Powell - January 2004:
"I have not seen smoking gun, concrete evidence about the connection, but I do believe the connections existed."
US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice - September 2003:
"Saddam was a danger in the region where the 9/11 threat emerged."
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld - November 2002:
"Within a week, or a month, Saddam could give his WMD to al-Qaeda."
~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~08~RS~)
One-Minute World News
News services
E-mail this to a friend
Printable version
