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report was published by The Weekly Standard in its July 5-12 issue. Stephen F. Hayes, author of the new book "The Connection: How al-Qaeda's Collaboration with Saddam Hussein has Endangered America," says Clinton administration officials in the late 1990s and beyond were making regular references to Saddam, his WMD programs and association with al-Qaida.

For example, Hayes writes that just two years ago, in July 2002, former Clinton State Department spokesman James Rubin hosted a PBS documentary that examined "the nature of the threat posed by Saddam Hussein."

"Ten years after the Gulf War and Saddam is still there and still continues to stockpile weapons of mass destruction," Rubin said. "Now there are suggestions he is working with al-Qaida, which means the very terrorists who attacked the United States last September may now have access to chemical and biological weapons."

As Hayes notes, Rubin – who is now John Kerry's senior presidential campaign adviser – said earlier this month on a cable talk show that he wasn't responsible, as the host, for producing the content of the program.

"Fair enough," Hayes writes. "But on the PBS program, Rubin spoke in a manner that suggested he did, in fact, believe the evidence presented by [the show's producer, investigative filmmaker Gwynne] Roberts, pressing one interview subject about the possibility of Saddam's passing weapons of mass destruction to 'the al Qaeda people in the film he's already trained.'"

Clinton-Gore 'Amnesia'

Hayes goes on to point out that the most "striking case of political amnesia" goes to the top two Clintonites – former Vice President Gore and the man himself, Bill Clinton.

On June 24, "Today" show co-host Katie Couric, not known for her tenacity of questioning regarding Democrats and liberals, interviewed Clinton and asked, "What do you think about this connection that Cheney, that Vice President Cheney continues to assert between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida?"

Clinton, of course, didn't know. "All I can tell you is I never saw it, I never believed it based on the evidence I had."

The same day, Gore – in a venomous speech at Georgetown University School of Law – accused Bush of "intentionally misleading the American people by continuing to aggressively and brazenly assert a linkage between al-Qaida and Saddam Hussein. If he is not lying, if he genuinely believes that, that makes them [sic] unfit in battle against al-Qaida. If they believe these flimsy scraps, then who would want them in charge?"

Really?

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