Former CIA director James Woolsey said over the weekend that there's no question Iraq and al Qaeda worked together to plan attacks against U.S. interests during the decade leading up to 9/11, describing the evidence of an operational relationship as "a slam dunk."
Commenting on a memo issued by the Defense Department to the Senate Intelligence Committee and revealed by the Weekly Standard late Friday, Woolsey told CNN's "Late Edition," "Anybody who says there is no working relationship between al Qaeda and Iraqi intelligence going back to the early '90s, they can only say that if they're illiterate."
"This is a slam dunk," the Clinton-era CIA chief contended, noting that his successor, George Tenet, had said the same thing in briefings last year.
"George Tenet ... said there'd been a relationship going back a decade. Training in – by Iraqi intelligence of al Qaeda in, quote, 'poisons, gases and explosives,'" the ex-CIA chief recalled, adding, "This memo expands on that."
What about the memo's most explosive claim, reports from Czech intelligence that Saddam helped bankroll lead 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta?
"It's a different question whether Iraqi intelligence had something to do with 9/11," said Woolsey. But he added, "That is certainly arguable."
The day before Woolsey offered his assessment of the Iraq-al Qaeda memo, the Defense Department issued a statement that described the memo as "inaccurate." The statement did not, however, say which of the 50 contacts between Iraq and al Qaeda as detailed by the memo were false.
Editor's note:
"CATASTROPHE" Reveals Bill Clinton’s Role in 9/11 - Click Here to find out more
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Saddam Hussein/Iraq
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