Is this article accurate did Saddam try to build a relatioship with bin Laden in 1998?
I am highly, highly suspicious of any “intelligence reports” that come from the Iraqi National Congress, whether past, present, or future. Those guys have an endless record of going to the press with their latest blockbuster intelligence coups, which just begs the question of why one would report supposedly useful intelligence directly to the press.
There were reports for a few days - I don’t see them anymore around here - that documents had been found indicating a man purporting to represent Al Qaeda met with an Iraqi representative around that time. Is is true? I don’t know. I do remember MI6 saying that there was no evidence that there were any subsequent meetings or that any such partnership ever happened.
And I agree with Ravenman: I wouldn’t trust the Iraqi National Congress any further than I could throw them, and I’m not good at throwing congresses.
Two other notes: 1) the article is over four years old and statements in it could have been revised or disproved, and
2) note the last paragraph:
I think we know what became of THAT, eh? Bin Laden never needed the new homebase, so we can probably discount at least that as a motivation for reaching out to Hussein.