9/11 panel: No evidence of al-Qaida, Iraq link

Bakersfield Californian ^ | 6/16/03 | Hope Yen - AP

[CyberAnt]

Tell the children the game is over - and they LOST!!

[BerniesFriend]

Wow..the incredible gall..these highly paid lawyers in washington..telling the world that they could not find evidence of a connection...yes..I am sure they went to the afghanistan/pakistan border and questioned obl and then went to the secret place of saddam..no one believes that saddam had anything to do with 9/11..but that he was an uninterested party with obl just begs credulity..

[Republican Wildcat]

While Saddam dispatched a senior Iraqi intelligence official to Sudan to meet with bin Laden in 1994, the commission said it had not turned up evidence of a "collaborative relationship."

So, yes, they collaborated, but there is no evidence of collaboration.

[NERep]

******Alert******

I have uncovered what I think may be behind this twisted story. I read the 2 reports released by the Commission Wednesday and neither included the phrase "no credible evidence" as used in the AP report.

Fact: The 9-11 Commission released two staff reports on Wednesday June 16 (Staff Reports No. 15 and 16). Staff Report No. 16 states: "We have examined the allegation that Atta met with an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague on April 9. Based on the evidence available — including investigation by Czech and U.S. authorities plus detainee reporting — we do not believe that such a meeting occurred."

Fact: On Thursday June 17, 2004, an Associated Press article ran with the headline "Panel finds no al-Qaida link to Iraq" The article included the following statement: "the commission investigating the 9/11 attacks reported Wednesday [June 16] that there was 'no credible evidence' that Saddam Hussein had ties with al-Qaida."

Fact: Searching all documents released by the commission to date, the only statement ever released by the commission that uses the phrase "no credible evidence" is a statement given by a witness testifying on July 9, 2003 in the Third Hearing. The witness stated: "There is no credible evidence of the Iraqi dictator Saddam or the Baghdad regime sponsoring Al Qaeda."

So you see, AP ran this story claiming the commission stated "no link" in their report released Wednesday, when in fact, the "no link" statement is pulled from an old witness statement. It is picked up by papers all over the US and reported as gospel.

Where is the outrage?

I just finished a letter to the editor of my local paper expressing my outrage and canceled my subscription.

[NERep]

I need to correct one statement of Fact I made above. Staff Report No. 15 released Wednesday does include the phrase "no credible evidence." However, in full context, it states: "We have no credible evidence that Iraq and Al Qaeda cooperated on attacks against the United States." This is still far different than saying there is no evidence linking Iraq and Al Qaeda.