Beyond the headlines saying Iraq and Al Qaeda had not ties is a body of evidence suggesting otherwise. Too bad most people don't look beyond the headlines.
Rules of Evidence: "Saddam made it a habit of cursing and threatening the United States. His annual January 'Army Day' speeches were laced with threats and promises of retaliation against American assets. That is, when Saddam claimed that the United States was 'not Iraq's enemy,' he was quite obviously lying. But nowhere in the staff's report is it noted that Saddam's debriefing was substantially at odds with more than a decade of his rhetoric.
The testimony of another former senior Iraqi official is more starkly disturbing. One of Saddam's senior intelligence operatives, Faruq Hijazi, was questioned about his contacts with bin Laden and al Qaeda. There is a substantial body of reporting on Hijazi's ties to al Qaeda throughout the 1990s.
Hijazi admitted to meeting bin Laden once in 1995, but claimed that 'this was his sole meeting with bin Ladin or a member of al Qaeda and he is not aware of any other individual following up on the initial contact.'
This is not true. Hijazi's best known contact with bin Laden came in December 1998, days after the Clinton administration's Operation Desert Fox concluded. We know the meeting happened because the worldwide media reported it. The meeting took place on December 21, 1998. And just days later, Osama bin Laden warned, 'The British and the American people loudly declared their support for their leaders decision."