Robert Harris
01-09-2004, 04:23 PM
U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE SAYS NO HARD EVIDENCE LINKING IRAQ TO AL-QAEDA. Colin Powell said on 8 January that he did not have hard evidence of a link between the deposed Iraqi regime and the Al-Qaeda terrorist network, despite claims he made at the UN last year that such a link existed, nytimes.com reported on 9 January. "I have not seen smoking-gun, concrete evidence about the connection," Powell told reporters at a news conference in Washington. "But I think the possibility of such connections did exist, and it was prudent to consider them at the time that we did." Powell told the UN on 5 February (see "RFE/RL Iraq Report," 9 February 2003) that a "sinister nexus" existed "between Iraq and the Al-Qaeda terrorist network, a nexus that combines classic terrorist organizations and modern methods of murder.... Iraq today harbors a deadly terrorist network, headed by Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi, an associate and collaborator of Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda lieutenants," nytimes.com reported. KR
From: RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 9, No. 4, Part III, 9 January 2004
That would be really embarrassing, except I don't think many people believed him.
From: RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 9, No. 4, Part III, 9 January 2004
That would be really embarrassing, except I don't think many people believed him.