- WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Monday he knew of no "strong, hard
evidence" linking Saddam Hussein's Iraq and al Qaeda, despite describing
extensive contacts between the two before the Iraq invasion.
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- Rumsfeld, during a question-and-answer session before
the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, was asked to explain the
connection between Saddam and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, blamed
for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on America.
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- "I have seen the answer to that question migrate
in the intelligence community over a period of a year in the most amazing
way. Second, there are differences in the intelligence community as to
what the relationship was," Rumsfeld said.
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- "To my knowledge, I have not seen any strong, hard
evidence that links the two," Rumsfeld added.
-
- "I just read an intelligence report recently about
one person who's connected to al Qaeda who was in and out of Iraq. And
it is the most tortured description of why he might have had a relationship
and why he might not have had a relationship. It may have been something
that was not representative of a hard linkage."
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- U.S.-led forces invaded Iraq in March 2003 and toppled
Saddam and his government in a war whose main justification offered by
the United States was the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
No such weapons have been discovered.
-
- But the relationship between Saddam's government and
al Qaeda also figured in the U.S. case for war.
-
- A small Pentagon intelligence-analysis office found what
it considered evidence of Iraq-al Qaeda ties. Rumsfeld was one of the Bush
administration officials publicly describing this link. On Sept. 26, 2002,
Rumsfeld told reporters at the Pentagon of evidence of contacts and cooperation.
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- 'CREDIBLE INFORMATION'
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- "We have what we consider to be very reliable reporting
of senior level contacts going back a decade, and of possible chemical
and biological agent training. And when I say contacts, I mean between
Iraq and al Qaeda," Rumsfeld said at the time.
-
- "We have what we believe to be credible information
that Iraq and al Qaeda have discussed safe-haven opportunities in Iraq,
reciprocal nonaggression discussions. We have what we consider to be credible
evidence that al Qaeda leaders have sought contacts in Iraq who could help
them acquire ... weapons of mass destruction capabilities," Rumsfeld
added at the time.
-
-
- The bipartisan 9/11 commission that studied the 2001
attacks concluded this July there was no evidence of a "collaborative
operational relationship" between Iraq and al Qaeda or an Iraqi role
in attacking the United States.
-
- During a question-and-answer session at the Council on
Foreign Relations on Monday, Rumsfeld also was asked what was the "number-one
reason for the war."
-
- Rumsfeld said President Bush made the judgment that Saddam
"ran a vicious regime that had used weapons of mass destruction on
its own people, as well as its neighbors, and that it was important to
set that right by removing that regime before they, in fact, did gather
weapons of mass destruction, either themselves or transferring them to
terrorist networks."
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- Before the war, U.S. officials spoke of Iraq already
possessing weapons of mass destruction, not a potential for gathering them.
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- "It turns out that we have not found weapons of
mass destruction," Rumsfeld said.
-
- "And why the intelligence proved wrong, I'm not
in a position to say. I simply don't know. But the world is a lot better
off with Saddam Hussein in jail than they were with him in power,"
Rumsfeld added.
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- - Additional reporting by Carolyn Koo
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