9/11 report: No Iraq link to Al-Qaida

U.N. Panel Finds No Iraq Link to

The committee says that despite the allegation by Powell of a connection, the U.S. never provided any evidence to back up the charge.

UNITED NATIONS — A U.N. committee has found no evidence of links between Iraq and Al Qaeda, but the panel said Thursday that the terrorist network can look to new recruits of suicide bombers in Morocco and elsewhere.

The committee, charged with reporting on Al Qaeda and remnants of Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime, released a 42-page report on the state of international terrorism following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

"Nothing has come to our notice that would indicate links between Iraq and Al Qaeda," said Michael Chandler, one of five outside experts who prepared the report for the committee.

"That doesn't mean to say it doesn't exist. But from what we've seen, the answer is 'no,' " he told a news conference.

Chandler said the first he had heard of any alleged links was during a presentation to the Security Council in February by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell. Then-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's purported ties to Al Qaeda were used by the Bush administration as a justification for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March.

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