- Secretary of State Colin Powell told the public that there was no "smoking gun [or] concrete evidence" of links between al Qaeda and Iraq. (New York Times, "Powell Admits No Hard Proof In Linking Iraq to Al Qaeda, 1/9/04)
- The 9/11 Commission found no "collaborative relationship" between Iraq and al Qaeda. (Washington Post, "Al Qaeda-Hussein Link Is Dismissed," 6/17/04)
- "The chairman of the monitoring group appointed by the United Nations Security Council to track al Qaeda told reporters that his team had found no evidence linking al Qaeda to Saddam Hussein." - NY Times, 6/27/03
- U.S. allies have found no links between Iraq and Al Qaeda. 'We have found no evidence of links between Iraq and al Qaeda,' said Europe's top investigator. 'If there were such links, we would have found them. But we have found no serious connections whatsoever.' - LA Times, 11/4/02"
Claim v. Fact by CAP and House Gov. Reform Committee's On the Record Section :
An attempt to resuscitate the 9/11-Iraq linkage should not distract people from the cruel facts on the ground:
- Osama bin-Laden -- the man behind the 9/11 attacks - remains on the loose more than 1,800 days after the attacks
- The Taliban appear to be regrouping in Afghanistan
- The insurgency continues to gain new foreign supporters in Iraq.
HAYES TRANSCRIPT: From CNN Daybreak this morning
COSTELLO: But that's not what it started out, when the United States invaded Iraq.
It's changed, hasn't it?
HAYES: I don't think it's changed at all. It's very clear that terrorists are connected to what Saddam Hussein was all about. And that again faces up to the most severe threat going forward...
COSTELLO: But there is no...
HAYES: We have to do a good job explaining...
COSTELLO: ... evidence that Saddam Hussein was connected in any way to al Qaeda.
HAYES: Ma'am, I'm sorry, but you're mistaken. There's evidence everywhere. We get access to it, unfortunately others don't. But the evidence is very clear.
COSTELLO: What evidence is there?
HAYES: The connection between individuals who were connected to Saddam Hussein, folks who worked for him, we've seen it time and time again. But the issue is where are we now. Nobody disputes 9/11. They would do that again if not prevented. Preventing 9/11 wherever it might happen in America, winning the war overseas, not bringing it here to our shores, is the issue in that regard.
COSTELLO: Well, are you saying that Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11?
HAYES: I'm saying that Saddam Hussein -- and I think you're losing track of what we're trying to talk about here -- Saddam Hussein and people like him were very much involved in 9/11. Did he make the phone call and say...
COSTELLO: There's no evidence of that.
HAYES: Well, I'm sorry, you haven't looked in the right places.
COSTELLO: I must not have, because I know of no evidence connecting Saddam Hussein to Osama bin Laden or al Qaeda. And, also, there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. And many people writing to us this morning wanted the president to explain those things.
HAYES: Well, we would be glad to explain it. I'd love to talk to those people face-to-face because hundreds of thousands of Kurds were gassed and killed, biological weapons were used. Fortunately, nuclear weapons weren't there. That's one smoking gun we didn't find. But it's very clear he would have used it if he could. The terrorists that remain would clearly use nuclear, biological, chemical, any other kind of weapon to destroy you, me and our families.
"