The September 11 Commission has stated that they have found no evidence of a direct operational link between Iraq and al-Qaeda, although they have confirmed that there were several links between the two.
The Commission seems to put to rest the idea that Mohammad Atta met with Iraqi spy Ahmad Khalil Ibrahim Samir al-Ani in Prague in April of 2001. This potential connection had some interesting suggestions about what the two had been doing, and previously the BIS (Czech intelligence) had been confirming that they believed such a meeting had taken place. However, if the reports that al-Ani’s planner had indicated a meeting with a "Hamburg student" were indeed incorrect and the FBI has evidence that Atta was in the United States at the time, it’s fair to say that argument no longer appears credible.
At the same time, the report indicates that an Iraqi intelligence agent did meet with bin Laden in 1994, that Iraq and al-Qaeda did work together in the Sudan, and that there were subsequent contacts after bin Laden moved al-Qaeda operations to Afghanistan, although the report could not confirm what, if any, relationships the two parties had during that time.
What this does disprove is the argument that the religious fanatic Osama bin Laden and the secular socialist Saddam Hussien would never have worked together – curiously the 9/11 Commission reports that bin Laden himself reached out to Saddam Hussein in order to establish Qaeda-linked training camps in Iraq.
Does this weaken the Administration’s case that Iraq was a supporter of terrorism? Regardless of any connections with al-Qaeda, it is unquestionable that Iraq was a state supporter of terrorism. The arguments for removing the Hussein regime stand alone even without any direct link to al-Qaeda. However, while this report does close certain avenues of investigation, it does not close all of them, and it suggests some other possibilities as well. The argument that the Commission found absolutely no link between Iraq and al-Qaeda was is not borne out by the report, and if anything it suggests that a potential Iraq/al-Qaeda connection was a very real threat to the security of the United States.
A guy approaches you down the street. He offers 10 kilos of cocaïne. You refuse. He goes away.
What would you think when the judge charges you with “connection in drug trafficking”?: “We have the pictures Sir Reding, there clearly is a link between you two!”