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'No Saddam link to Iraq al-Qaeda' 'No Saddam link to Iraq al-Qaeda'
(20 minutes later)
There is no evidence of links between former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda leaders in Iraq prior to the 2003 war, a US Senate report has said. There is no evidence of formal links between Iraqi ex-leader Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda leaders in Iraq prior to the 2003 war, a US Senate report says.
The revelation comes from a 2005 CIA report released by the Senate's Intelligence Committee on Friday. The finding is contained in a 2005 CIA report released by the Senate's Intelligence Committee on Friday.
US President George W Bush has said that the presence of late al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq before the war was evidence of a link.US President George W Bush has said that the presence of late al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq before the war was evidence of a link.
Opposition Democrats say the report has harmed Mr Bush's case for going to war.Opposition Democrats say the report has harmed Mr Bush's case for going to war.
The BBC's Justin Webb in Washington says that the US president has again and again tried to connect the war in Iraq, which most Americans think was a mistake, with the so-called war on terror, which has the support of the nation.
The report comes as Mr Bush makes a series of speeches on the war on terror to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the 11 September 2001 attacks.
'Nothing new'
The committee concluded that the CIA had evidence of several instances of contacts between the Iraqi authorities and al-Qaeda throughout the 1990s but that these did not add up to a formal relationship.
It added that the government "did not have a relationship, harbour, or turn a blind eye toward Zarqawi and his associates".
White House spokesman Tony Snow told the Associated Press news agency the report contained "nothing new".
"In 2002 and 2003, members of both parties got a good look at the intelligence we had and they came to the very same conclusions about what was going on," he said.
But Democrat Senator Carl Levin described the report as a "devastating indictment" of the administration's attempts to link Saddam Hussein to al-Qaeda.