# Iraqi-Al-Qaeda link? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 12, 2002, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iraqi-al-qaeda-link/142246 "2002-12-12T14:32:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SuaSponte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/67e7ee/32.png) [@SuaSponte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuaSponte)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2002, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iraqi-al-qaeda-link/142246/1 "2002-12-12T14:32:31Z")
[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42876-2002Dec11.html](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42876-2002Dec11.html) If corroborated, we have a problem. Sua ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2002, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iraqi-al-qaeda-link/142246/2 "2002-12-12T14:42:14Z")
Uh oh. Depending on one’s political viewpoint, this is either the Smoking Gun, or the made-up excuse, that the US/UK need to go in guns blazing. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2002, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iraqi-al-qaeda-link/142246/3 "2002-12-12T15:14:48Z")
CNN seems to be backing off from the claim. [Cite.](http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/12/12/sproject.irq.iraq.al.qaeda.index.html) More of this stuff where the media won’t name its sources, so I can’t tell whose word I am being asked to take for it. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![SuaSponte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/67e7ee/32.png) [@SuaSponte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuaSponte)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2002, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iraqi-al-qaeda-link/142246/4 "2002-12-12T15:30:26Z")
**Shodan,** could you re-post the CNN link? It didn’t work for me. Thanks, Sua ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2002, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iraqi-al-qaeda-link/142246/5 "2002-12-12T15:32:04Z")
Doesn’t this month’s _Vanity Fair_ have an article about this as well? ---
**Author:** ![lno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a8b319/32.png) [@lno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lno)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2002, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iraqi-al-qaeda-link/142246/6 "2002-12-12T15:42:57Z")
[Officials: No hard evidence in nerve agent report](http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/12/12/sproject.irq.iraq.al.qaeda/index.html). Updated CNN link. ---
**Author:** ![SuaSponte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/67e7ee/32.png) [@SuaSponte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuaSponte)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2002, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iraqi-al-qaeda-link/142246/7 "2002-12-12T15:55:46Z")
Thanks, I feel better. Sua ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2002, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iraqi-al-qaeda-link/142246/8 "2002-12-12T16:03:39Z")
Thanks, **Ino**. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2002, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iraqi-al-qaeda-link/142246/9 "2002-12-12T22:03:47Z")
Is the CIA incompetent, or highly principled? If the Bushistas had the Cagey Bee or Mossad working for them, they would have cooked up some proof positive toot damn sweet. The CIA was even told exactly what to find: Saddam Hussein, in the library, with the WMD. So how come they didn’t? Could it be that they’re actually playing straight? ---
**Author:** ![MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bb73d2/32.png) [@MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MC_Master_of_Ceremonies)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2002, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iraqi-al-qaeda-link/142246/10 "2002-12-12T22:10:46Z")
Given that OBL hates Saddam (he sees his regime as an example of the evils of secularism), I think it’s highly unlikely. Al-Qaeda does hae cells in Iraq but they are in areas that are not under the control of Saddam. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2002, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iraqi-al-qaeda-link/142246/11 "2002-12-12T22:15:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by elucidator \* > **The CIA was even told exactly what to find: Saddam Hussein, in the library, with the WMD. So how come they didn’t?** Crikey … let’s give the jury a while to deliberate, why don’t we? My understanding is that the UN inspections still have _several_ months to go. You are counting your chickens before you’ve even bought the hen to even lay eggs. ---
**Author:** ![SuaSponte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/67e7ee/32.png) [@SuaSponte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuaSponte)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2002, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iraqi-al-qaeda-link/142246/12 "2002-12-12T22:23:48Z")
**bordelond,** I think **elucidator** was asking why the CIA hasn’t fabricated evidence, not found evidence. Sua ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2002, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iraqi-al-qaeda-link/142246/13 "2002-12-12T22:55:34Z")
My first thought on reading about this this morning was “more invasion-justifying theater” (or theatre, as the case may be). Only AFTER months of stick-waving by the US, Saddam does the one thing that pretty much guarantees an invasion? I’m having some trouble buying it. OTOH, the linked article claims that the information was released “without White House permission”, so perhaps it’s some freelance CIA spin after all, or a CYA move in case a bunch of people collapse in a subway sometime in the next couple of months. In any event, hanging an invasion on a one-line summary from a daily threat report in which 99% of the data is thrown away, according to the quoted official, seems a bit much even for this crowd. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iraqi-al-qaeda-link/142246/14 "2002-12-13T03:39:21Z")
I tried to Google a cite, but unsurprisingly “Al Qaeda Saddam Hussein Iraq” snagged me 33,000+ links, but I’ve always heard that Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda doesn’t like Saddam Hussein. They think he is too decadent and not Muslim enough. Women can wear jeans and drive in Baghdad, gasp, horror! Nothing’s impossible, of course, but so far I am unconvinced. A link between Al Qaeda and Iraq just seems a little too convenient.