Either this qualifies as a link between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden or, as Glenn Reynolds says, it demonstrates a lot more foresight and media savvy than Bush's critics may be willing to credit him (also via reader Soybomb):

February 13, 1999 Web posted at: 10:55 a.m. EST (1547 GMT)

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Osama bin Laden, the Saudi millionaire accused by the United States of plotting bomb attacks on two U.S. embassies in Africa, has left Afghanistan, Afghan sources said Saturday.

Bin Laden's whereabouts were not known, said the sources who declined to be identified. ...

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has offered asylum to bin Laden, who openly supports Iraq against the Western powers. [emph. mine -- C.E.]

Glenn also points out this Guardian article from the week before that:

By Julian Borger in Washington Saturday February 6, 1999 The Guardian

Saddam Hussein's regime has opened talks with Osama bin Laden, bringing closer the threat of a terrorist attack using chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, according to US intelligence sources and Iraqi opposition officials.
The key meeting took place in the Afghan mountains near Kandahar in late December. The Iraqi delegation was led by Farouk Hijazi, Baghdad's ambassador in Turkey and one of Saddam's most powerful secret policemen, who is thought to have offered Bin Laden asylum in Iraq.

So the geniuses on the 9/11 Commission have all the power of the federal government at their disposal and can't even do a Lexis-Nexis search? And if the commissioners are idiots, what does that say for CNN and the Guardian, who have acted incredulous at the notion of Iraqi-AQ collaboration?

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» No Ties Between Saddam and al-Qaida? from Terrorism Unveiled
Captain Ed posts two important articles dating from 1999 that demonstrate the ties between Hussein and al-Qaida: February 13, 1999 Web posted at: 10:55 a.m. EST (1547 GMT) ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Osama bin Laden, the Saudi millionaire accused by [Read More]

Tracked on June 23, 2004 6:00 AM

» How quickly they forget from Mossback's Lunch
Athena has dug up this wonderful piece from Captain Ed on the non-cooperation between Osama and Saddam from The Guardian, that great and compliant organ of Republican propaganda (not): Saddam Hussein's regime has opened talks with Osama bin Laden,... [Read More]

Tracked on June 23, 2004 3:21 PM