Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda link allegations
"Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda link allegations were made by the
U.S. government officials who claimed that a highly secretive relationship existed between
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the radical
Islamist militant organization
Al-Qaeda between 1992 and 2003, specifically through a series of meetings reportedly involving the
Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS).
[1] In the lead up to the
Iraq War,
U.S. President George W. Bush alleged that Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda might conspire to launch terrorist attacks on the
United States,
[2] basing the
administration's rationale for war, in part, on this allegation
and others. The consensus of intelligence experts has been that these contacts never led to an operational relationship, and that consensus is backed up by reports from the independent
9/11 Commission and by declassified
Defense Department reports
[3] as well as by the
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, whose 2006 report of Phase II of its investigation into
prewar intelligence reports concluded that there was no evidence of ties between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda.
[4] Critics of the Bush Administration have said Bush was intentionally building a case for war with Iraq without regard to factual evidence. On April 29, 2007, former
Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet said on
60 Minutes, "
We could never verify that there was any Iraqi authority, direction and control, complicity with al-Qaeda for 9/11 or any operational act against America, period."
[5]
