There were no ties to terrorists in Iraq.
<font color=blue>Jan. 9, 2004 WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Colin Powell acknowledged Thursday that he had seen no "smoking gun, concrete evidence" of ties between Saddam Hussein and the al-Qaida terror network, but insisted that Iraq had had dangerous weapons and needed to be disarmed by force.</font>
<font color=maroon>WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 — Vice President Dick Cheney has in recent speeches mentioned the major bombings in Iraq this past summer in the same breath as the deadly strikes in Bali, Casablanca and Riyadh, which authorities say were carried out by Al Qaeda or groups affiliated with it.
The clear implication is that militants linked to Al Qaeda were responsible for the Iraq bombings, too. The attacks in Baghdad last month would appear to lend credence to that claim except for this: senior military, intelligence and law enforcement officials say there is no conclusive evidence pointing to a particular group — Al Qaeda or not — as the mastermind behind any of the major attacks in Iraq. "At this point it isn't clear who's responsible for those bombings," a senior American official said.
Indicating who is behind the bombings — militants linked to Al Qaeda or homegrown loyalists to Saddam Hussein — is important politically for Mr. Cheney and his boss, President Bush, terrorism experts say.
Mr. Cheney has repeatedly sought to cast the Iraq war and its aftermath as part of the broader campaign against terrorism. Administration officials say that linking the bombings in Iraq to Al Qaeda and the broader war on terrorism puts the attacks in a better political light than if they are viewed as guerrilla strikes by Baathist die-hards.
But critics have accused Mr. Cheney of far exceeding what other administration figures have asserted about Qaeda links to Iraq. Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney have defined the American antiterror efforts very broadly. </font>
<font color=navy>Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, one of the main architects for the war in Iraq, admitted for the first time that Iraq had nothing to do with the September 11 terrorist attacks, contradicting public statements made by senior White House and Pentagon officials whose attempt to link Saddam Hussein and the terrorist organization al-Qaeda was cited by the Bush administration as one of the main reasons for launching a preemptive strike in March against Iraq.
In an interview with conservative radio personality Laura Ingraham, Wolfowitz was asked when he first came to believe that Iraq was behind the 9-11 terrorist attacks.
"I'm not sure even now that I would say Iraq had something to do with it," Wolfowitz said in the interview, aired Friday.</font>
<font color=orange>(CBS/AP) Distancing himself from remarks by Vice President Cheney, President Bush said Wednesday there was no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 — disputing an idea held by many Americans.</font>
<font color=brown> White House spokesman Scott McClellan said that in no way did Vice President Dick Cheney (search ) suggest in interviews over the weekend that there was evidence of Saddam's participation in the attacks. Bush never came to that conclusion either, the spokesman said.
McClellan could offer no clear explanation as to why recent public opinion polls indicate that 70 percent of Americans think there is a tie between Iraq and the attacks.</font>
<font color=green> A senior intelligence official told ABCNEWS that there is "no smoking gun — not even an unfired gun" when it comes to linking Iraq with al Qaeda, even though intelligence officials have been trying to find a strong connection between Saddam and al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden since Sept. 11.
Even after six months of searching, the CIA could see only contact, not cooperation.
In March 2002, Tenet said of Iraq and al Qaeda: "Their ties may be limited by divergent ideologies, but the two sides mutual antipathies toward the United States and the Saudi royal family suggests that tactical cooperation between them is possible."
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And on and on it goes. The administration tries to imply there were terrorists operating from Iraq before the invasion, but like the WMDs, it was all a deception.
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