WASHINGTON — The commission staff investigating the Sept. 11 attacks said Wednesday that it had found "no credible evidence" of cooperation between Iraq and Al Qaeda in targeting America or of any other collaboration between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden's terrorism network.
The findings appeared to be the most complete and authoritative dismissal of a key Bush administration rationale for invading Iraq: that Hussein's regime had worked in collusion with Al Qaeda.
Bin Laden made overtures to Hussein in the mid-1990s while he was in Sudan and again after he went to Afghanistan in 1996, but they "do not appear to have resulted in a collaborative relationship," the staff said in a report. And two of Bin Laden's most senior associates, interrogated by U.S. authorities, "have adamantly denied that any ties existed between Al Qaeda and Iraq."
Also, a much-publicized meeting between a senior Iraqi intelligence official in Prague and lead hijacker Mohamed Atta appears not to have occurred, the commission report concluded. It based that finding on cellphone records showing Atta was in Florida at the time.
As recently as Monday, Vice President Dick Cheney said in a speech in Orlando, Fla., that Hussein "had long-standing ties with Al Qaeda." Asked Tuesday about Cheney's remarks, President Bush said he supported them.
The commission, as a matter of procedure, has not endorsed any of the staff's 16 reports to date, but is expected to include them in its official report due July 26. Some of the commission's Republican members suggested during questioning Wednesday that they may not agree ultimately with the staff findings.
The staff's analysts on the Iraq issue and on Al Qaeda include Douglas J. MacEachin, former deputy director of intelligence for the CIA, and other senior intelligence and law enforcement officials.
The White House had no immediate comment Wednesday on the report's conclusion on the lack of an Iraq-Al Qaeda link, a spokesman said.
But the conclusions prompted immediate accusations from Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee.
"The administration misled America, the administration reached too far, they did not tell the truth to Americans about what was happening or their own intentions," Kerry told a National Public Radio affiliate in Michigan.
