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Pre-war CIA report questioned al Qaeda-Iraq ties Thursday, November 10, 2005; Posted: 11:06 p.m. EST (04:06 GMT) WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A January 2003 CIA report raised doubts about claims that al Qaeda sent operatives to Iraq to acquire chemical and biological weapons -- dramatic assertions that were repeated weeks later by then-Secretary of State Colin Powell to the United Nations in making the case for the invasion of Iraq. CNN on Thursday obtained a CIA document that outlined the history of the claim, which originated in 2002 with a captured al Qaeda operative who recanted two years later. The CIA...

The New York Times, March 4, 1999 March 4, 1999, Thursday, Late Edition - Final SECTION: Section A; Page 1; Column 5; Foreign Desk HEADLINE: Terror Suspect Said to Anger Afghan Hosts BYLINE: By TIM WEINER DATELINE: WASHINGTON, March 3 BODY: The suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden and the Taliban, his protectors in Afghanistan, have had a violent falling-out, raising the possibility that his days of refuge may be numbered, senior American officials said today. Three American officials and two Taliban representatives said a fight broke out three weeks ago in Afghanistan between Mr. bin Laden's bodyguards and a group...

Iraq's coalition government claims that it has uncovered documentary proof that Mohammed Atta, the al-Qaeda mastermind of the September 11 attacks against the US, was trained in Baghdad by Abu Nidal, the notorious Palestinian terrorist. Details of Atta's visit to the Iraqi capital in the summer of 2001, just weeks before he launched the most devastating terrorist attack in US history, are contained in a top secret memo written to Saddam Hussein, the then Iraqi president, by Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti, the former head of the Iraqi Intelligence Service. The handwritten memo, a copy of which has been obtained exclusively...