Documents have reportedly been found in Baghdad which show that Saddam Hussein's intelligence service hosted an envoy from Osama bin Laden in 1998 and sought to meet the alleged 11 September terror mastermind in person.
The documents, which a reporter for The Sunday Telegraph claimed to have found yesterday in the wrecked headquarters of the Iraqi Mukhabarat (intelligence service), showed that Iraq brought a bin Laden aide to Baghdad in early 1998 from his former base in Sudan to arrange closer ties.
The documents claim the meeting was apparently so successful that the emissary's trip was extended by a week and ended with arrangements being discussed for bin Laden himself to visit Iraq.
The 1998 visit described in the documents would have taken place before bin Laden became notorious in the West, when the US blamed him for the bombings of two US embassies in Africa later that year.
According to the newspaper, bin Laden's name had been concealed in several places on the Iraqi documents with white correction fluid and the reporter scraped the fluid off with a razorblade to uncover the name.
One paper is marked, in handwriting, "Top Secret and Urgent" and dated 19 February 1998. It refers to the planned trip from Sudan by bin Laden's unnamed envoy and refers to arrangements for his visit. The documents do not say whether a meeting between Iraqi officials and Mr bin Laden took place.
Before the war, Saddam's government denied links with bin Laden's al-Qa'ida network.
Interesting...same story from two different sources. Apparently both have seen the docs. Wonder who else and if anyone was tipped before the stories broke.