No Al Qaeda-Saddam Hussein links- US Senate report

Washington, Sep 9 (UNI) Contrary to claims by the George W Bush administration, a US Senate committee has absolved fallen Iraqi despot Saddam Hussein of having any ties with the al-Qaeda before the Iraq war, igniting new controversy over the US rationale for invading Iraq.

The committee released its 400-page report yesterday as part of an ongoing investigation by the Senate Intelligence Committee. It has been looking into the intelligence used by the administration to justify the invasion of Iraq.

The report comes days before Americans are set to observe the fifth 9/11 anniversary. The document disclosed, for the first time, an a priori October 2005 CIA assessment that Saddam's government ''did not have a relationship, harbour or turn a blind eye toward'' al-Qaeda operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, recently killed in Iraq, or his associates.

According to the report, postwar findings intimate Saddam Hussein ''as distrustful of al-Qaeda and viewed Islamic extremists as a threat to his regime''.

Mr Bush had asked people to ''imagine a world in which you had Saddam Hussein'' with the capacity to make weapons of mass destruction and ''who had relations with Zarqawi'' on August 21 while addressing a press conference.

With Congressional mid-term elections due for November 7, opposition Democrats were quick to exploit the situation created by the report.

They reiterated, at a press conference yesterday, that the document proved that the Bush administration had tried to prey on the American apprehensions following 9/11, to warrant military intervention in Iraq.

Democrat Senator John Rockefeller, a member on the intelligence panel, dubbed the administration's vindication for war in Iraq ''fundamentally misleading''. ''Most disturbingly the administration in its drive to generate favourable public opinion for toppling Saddam Hussein pursued a deceptive strategy prior to the war,'' he said.

UNI XC MQA RK1035