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9/11 Commission to Deny al-Qaeda-Iraq Collaboration
The commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks is expected to reject possibilities of a collaborative relationship between Iraq and al-Qaeda in a report set to be released before the panel’s July 26 deadline, according to the New York Times (see GSN, July 7). An interim staff report released last month found that there was “no credible evidence that Iraq and al-Qaeda cooperated on attacks against the United States” and that multiple contacts between Iraq and al-Qaeda “do not appear to have resulted in a collaborative relationship.” The final report is set to closely follow the staff report on theories of an al-Qaeda-Iraq link, commission members and the panel’s chief spokesman said last week. However, the final report is expected to document contacts over the years between Iraqi government and military officials and al-Qaeda’s leadership, said commission spokesman Al Felzenberg. “We expect the final report to enumerate on some of the contacts that were made between Iraq and al-Qaeda, and there were a number of points of contacts,” Felzenberg said. The report is also expected to document failures at senior levels of the Bush administration that prevented the United States from forcefully heeding intelligence warnings before the attacks, commission officials said. The report is not expected to name officials. However, it is likely to criticize several agencies, including the FBI and CIA, for their performance in both the Bush and Clinton administrations. It is also likely call for an overhaul of U.S. counterterrorism and intelligence efforts, according to the commission officials. The commission hopes to release the final report during the week of July 18, to avoid being overshadowed by the Democratic convention set for the following week, according to the Times (Philip Shenon, New York Times, July 12).
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