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I have no doubt that Al Quida operatives had contact with Saddam's intelligence people. That is what intelligence people do. They may have even had contact with Muhamed Atta before the 9/11 attack; he may even have asked for some help, but I seriously doubt he told Saddam's intel people about 9/11 and the help he might have sought could have been connected to other Al Quida ops.
On another subject, it is interesting how any Administration statement that Al Quida had direct contacts with Saddam's gov't prior to 9/11 quickly morfs into insistence by critics that Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11.
Notice for example in the 2004 article posted here a few posts back, Cheney is quoted as saying Saddam had contact with Al Quida before 9/11 and right away he is attacked for linking Saddam to 9/11. From apples come oranges.
At the end of the article he is reported having said he didn't know if Saddam had played a part in 9/11. That is pretty much what I have heard from the beginning.
Of course, no one knows the truth yet. My guess is that history will show that Saddam did not know about 9/11 ahead of time. The only possibility is that his intel folks gave help to Al Quida without knowing what for.
In any case, this is an interesting sidebar in the runup to the Iraq war, but hardly the main chance. It's fodder for politicians and froathing critics of Bush and the Iraq war.
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