I think too much effort is being expended on attempting to prove an ongoing working relationship between al Qaeda and the Iraqi government because the socialists and their followers put this issue in play knowing full well the futility of undercovering irrefutable evidence of such a relationship. My view is the al Qaeda is acting as an organized group of professional hitmen available for hire. As we know in this country individual contracts for killings by professional hitmen are not very susceptible to proof in the absence of confessions generally given as a result of plea bargaining or grants of immunity. Terrorist acts contracted by the intelligency agencies of despotic governments are even more difficult to prove. I think Saddam views al Qaeda as just another delivery system for his weapons of mass destruction or other terror inducing tactics. This latter view is somewhat confirmed by the antiwar activists constant harping that a war would only incite further terrorist acts by outside Iraq.
My view is the al Qaeda is acting as an organized group of professional hitmen available for hire. Bingo.
That's why so many people don't get it- they're all assuming there has to be an ideological mind-meld for there to be a link and so, they insist there is no link.
There are quite a tidy number of links surfacing though, regardless of the efforts to diss them. It's just that every time some links come up, they are ignored because they don't fit in with their preconceived agenda.