Panel says no signs Iraq aided al Qaeda plots on US

12.00pm - By DEBORAH CHARLES

WASHINGTON - Contrary to the Bush administration's prewar rhetoric, investigators have found no evidence Iraq aided al Qaeda attempts to strike the United States, a commission probing the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks said on today.

The report by staff of the government-established commission said al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had met with a senior Iraqi intelligence officer in 1994 and had explored the possibility of cooperation, but the plans apparently never came to fruition.

Comments by President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney this week kept alive the idea of an Iraqi link to al Qaeda, which is blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks.

However, the staff report said, "We have no credible evidence that Iraq and al Qaeda cooperated on attacks against the United States."

"There is no convincing evidence that any government financially supported al Qaeda before 9/11 -- other than limited support provided by the Taleban after bin Laden first arrived in Afghanistan," it added.

FBI and CIA counterterrorism officials testifying at the hearing said they agreed with the report's conclusion, and a bipartisan group of former diplomats accused the administration of a "cynical campaign" to build support for war by linking Saddam with the Sept. 11 attacks.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry and other congressional Democrats seized on the commission report as part of their campaign to unseat the president in November.

"The administration misled America," Kerry said. "I believe that the 9/11 report, the early evidence, is that ... we didn't have the types of terrorist links that this administration was asserting. I think that's a very, very serious finding."

The report was issued at the start of the commission's final two days of public hearings into the hijacked-plane attacks, which killed nearly 3000 people. The hearings were called to find out how the United States failed to prevent the attacks and what it can do now to improve security.

The report stood in contrast to Bush administration prewar attempts to suggest an alliance between Iraq and al Qaeda.

Bush had said before the war Iraq and al Qaeda shared a "common enemy" -- the United States, and Cheney and other officials had suggested Iraq might have played a direct role in the Sept. 11 attacks. Bush acknowledged after the war that there was no evidence of such a role.

But Cheney this week said that ousted Iraqi leader Saddam had "long-established ties" to al Qaeda.

Bush then cited the presence in Iraq of Islamist militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as "the best evidence" of an Iraqi connection to al Qaeda.

In a staff report entitled "Overview of the Enemy," the commission said al Qaeda had changed drastically and become decentralised since Sept. 11, but still helped regional networks and remained "extremely interested in conducting chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear attacks."

Al Qaeda's ability to conduct an anthrax attack was one of the most immediate threats, it said.

A second staff report outlined the planning the Sept. 11 plot. It said the plotters had initially proposed hijacking 10 planes and attacking targets on the east and west coasts of the United States. Other plans included hijacking planes flying from Southeast Asia and exploding them in mid-air, or flying them into US targets in Japan, Singapore or Korea.

These plans were ditched as overly ambitious. The staff report said the Sept. 11 date was not chosen until about three weeks before the attacks.

The attacks cost between $400,000 and $500,000 to execute, the commission estimated. The US government has been unable to determine the attackers' source of money, it said.

While it found no convincing evidence of government financial support, the panel said Saudi Arabia provided "fertile fund-raising ground" for al Qaeda.

The second panel report said there was no evidence Princess Haifa al-Faisal, the wife of Saudi ambassador to Washington Prince Bandar bin Sultan, had contributed any funds to the conspiracy. The FBI has examined whether some of her charitable donations ended up with the hijackers.

The commission will hold its final day of hearings on Thursday, focusing on crisis management by civilian and military aviation officials. The panel is due to present its final report at the end of July.

- REUTERS

September 11 Commission:

Staff Statement 16: Outline of the 9/11 Plot [PDF]