Yesterday, a powerful story in Britain’s Telegraph reported that a secret memo written to Saddam Hussein by the former head of Iraqi intelligence had been uncovered by the Iraqi interim government. It details Mohammed Atta’s–the head of the 9/11 hijackers–training in Baghdad prior to the September attacks.
Although Iraqi officials refused to disclose how and where they had obtained the document, Dr Ayad Allawi, a member of Iraq’s ruling seven-man Presidential Committee, said the document was genuine.
“We are uncovering evidence all the time of Saddam’s involvement with al-Qaeda,” he said. “But this is the most compelling piece of evidence that we have found so far. It shows that not only did Saddam have contacts with al-Qaeda, he had contact with those responsible for the September 11 attacks.”
This, coupled with a leaked memo to The Weekly Standard documenting Iraq-al Qaeda contracts dating back to 1990, and continuing through the start of the Iraq war in 2003, begins to show the link between Saddam and al Qaeda that the left so vigorously denies.
Because any evidence linking Saddam and bin Laden would vindicate the Iraq war in terms even the left would concede, opposition to such findings and outright denial is astounding.
Update: Newsweek attempts to discredit Iraq-al Qaeda link.