CIA claims links between Iraq and al-Qaeda groups

THE US: US Intelligence has traced a series of "contacts and linkages" between the al-Qaeda terrorist network and Saddam Hussein…

THE US: US Intelligence has traced a series of "contacts and linkages" between the al-Qaeda terrorist network and Saddam Hussein, it was claimed yesterday as the Bush administration continued to seek international support to overthrow the Iraqi leader.

Mr George Tenet, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, told senators the administration was still investigating whether either Iraq or Iran sponsored the September 11th terrorist attacks.

He also said animosity between Sunni Muslims of Iraq and Iran's Shia Muslims was being set aside as al-Qaeda planned attacks on their common enemies, the US and the Saudi regime.

"Baghdad has a long history of supporting terrorism, altering its targets to reflect changing priorities and goals," he told the Senate armed services committee. "It has also had contacts with al-Qaeda.

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"Their ties may be limited by divergent ideologies, but the two sides' mutual antipathy toward the United States and the Saudi royal family suggests that tactical co-operation between them is possible, even though Saddam is well aware that such activity would carry serious consequences."

Mr Tenet's warnings represent the clearest statement of the administration's fear that Iraq could be supporting international terrorists seeking to acquire its nuclear, chemical and biological technologies. His testimony is sure to lend weight to calls for action against Iraq.

His analysis was echoed by another senior US official, who drew parallels between the evidence found in Afghanistan and what the US discovered after the Gulf war against Iraq.

Mr Carl Ford, assistant secretary of state for intelligence and research, said al-Qaeda "had an almost insatiable appetite for information on biological and chemical weapons, both how to do it and how to deliver it," He told the Senate foreign relations committee: "They also were interested in talking to a wide range of experts from neighbouring countries."- (Financial Times service)