Al-Qaeda Had Greater Ties to Iran, Pakistan Than Iraq, Head of Sept. 11 Commission Says

Al-Qaeda had more contacts with Iran and Pakistan than it did with prewar Iraq, the head of the U.S. commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks said Sunday (see GSN, June 16).

“We believe … that there were a lot more active contacts, frankly, with Iran and with Pakistan than there were with Iraq,” said commission Chairman Thomas Kean, a former Republican governor of New Jersey. “Al-Qaeda didn’t like to get involved with states, unless they were living there. They got involved with Sudan, they got involved … where they lived, but otherwise no,” he said during an appearance on ABC’s This Week.

Last week, the commission released a staff report that said that while there had been contacts between al-Qaeda and Iraqi officials, there was no evidence of a collaborative relationship. Kean said that the staff report was an interim document and that he saw no conflict between its findings and the claims made by the Bush administration of ties between al-Qaeda and Iraq (Pete Yost, Associated Press/Nashua, N.H., Telegraph, June 20).

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