Perhaps it was because Joined Iraq and declared war on our Republic in 1998.
IIRC Operation Desert Storm ended in a truce, We were in a state of war with Saddam until Op Iraqi Freedom.
A truce with conditions similar to "parole." Iraq was NOT a sovereign nation. --Just as here a parolee's abode can be searched without warrant, so could Saddam's. The docs and tapes contian instances of Saddam stating that Iraq was "at war" with US.
Saddam was not a secular ruler. His Baathist gov was not mosque run, but it built mosques using state funds (and stone from Assyrian archeological sites). But even if Saddam had been secular that would have in no way prevented him from using Al-Qaeda to carry out proxy attacks.