Bush Says No Evidence That Saddam Hussein Involved in Sept. 11 Attacks

AP ^ | 9/17/03 | Terence Hunt

[Jean S]

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush said Wednesday there was no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 - disputing an idea held by many Americans.

"There's no question that Saddam Hussein had al-Qaida ties," the president said. But he also said, "We have no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with the Sept. 11" attacks.

The president's comment was in line with a statement Tuesday by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who said he not seen any evidence that Saddam was involved in the attacks.

Yet, a new poll found that nearly 70 percent of respondents believed the Iraqi leader probably was personally involved. Rumsfeld said, "I've not seen any indication that would lead me to believe that I could say that."

The administration has argued that Saddam's government had close links to al-Qaida, the terrorist network led by Osama bin Laden that masterminded the Sept. 11 attacks.

On Sunday, for example, Vice President Dick Cheney said that success in stabilizing and democratizing Iraq would strike a major blow at the "the geographic base of the terrorists who have had us under assault for many years, but most especially on 9-11."

And Tuesday, in an interview on ABC's "Nightline," White House national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said that one of the reasons Bush went to war against Saddam was because he posed a threat in "a region from which the 9-11 threat emerged."

In an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press," Cheney was asked whether he was surprised that more than two-thirds of Americans in a Washington Post poll would express a belief that Iraq was behind the attacks.

"No, I think it's not surprising that people make that connection," he replied.

Rice, asked about the same poll numbers, said, "We have never claimed that Saddam Hussein had either direction or control of 9-11."

AP-ES-09-17-03 1715EDT

[mil-vet]

You raise excellent points and ask a good question! Within two days of 9/11, the mosad (Isreali intel service) offered clear proof that Saddam had bankrolled both the '93 and 9/11 attacks on the WTC.

The USS Liberty debacle notwithstanding, if the Israelis don't know what's going on in that part of the world, nobody does!!

Haven't heard anyone mention this financial connection for quite some time, but at the time the proof was unquestionable and unquestioned. I have no clue why such an obvious connection should be so ignored.

[optimistically_conservative]

Well, it deserves repeating here ....

Who did it? Foreign Report presents an alternative view