Faruq Hijazi, in 1994 Saddam's secret service director and now his ambassador to Turkey, has had a series of meetings with bin Laden. These began in Sudan, arranged by Hassan al-Tourabi, the Sudanese Muslim leader, and continued in Afghanistan.
The conspiracy was furthered in Baghdad in 1998 between bin Laden's No. 2 man, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and Saddam's vice president, Taha Yasin Ramadan.
"To strengthen Saddam's position in the Arab world during his 1998 crisis with the U.N., bin Laden established the "World Islamic Front for Jihad Against the Jews and the Crusaders." The Muslim-in-name Iraqi dictator reciprocated by promising secure refuge in Iraq for bin Laden and his key lieutenants if they were forced to flee Afghanistan.
Bin Laden sent a delegation of his top Al Qaeda terrorists to Baghdad on April 25, 1998, to attend the grand ...."
Dodder on , Safire, completely ignore who was President & Commander-in-Chief & his failings. Like succumbing to Monica instead of Saddam and the inspections in Iraq.
Sequence: do the deed, a day's drive up the coast from Yemn to Jeddah (if memory serves correctly on the city name), get on a plane and the nation covers itself by calling it a hijacking, the terrorists deplane in Iraq, they disappear from view and from media reports.
Actually they were feted by Saddam and then sent back to their boss, Bin Laden, where they received a big reception for a mission accomplished.