Reply #3: this took ten seconds to find

[buycitgo]

In his Feb. 5 presentation to the United Nations, Secretary of State Colin Powell repeated the assertion that Saddam Hussein has connections to the terror group al Qaeda. Despite the rhetoric, writes PNS contributor William O. Beeman, no hard evidence has been revealed. The Bush administration wants above all to prove a connection between the al Qaeda terrorist network and Saddam Hussein. Secretary of State Colin Powell tried to do just that in his argument before the United Nations on Feb. 5. Despite his claim that his words were based on "solid sources," Powell's argument was specious and based on deceptive rhetoric.

Powell stated, "Iraq today harbors a deadly terrorist network headed by Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, a collaborator of Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda lieutenants." He further claimed, "When our coalition ousted the Taliban, the Zarqawi network helped establish another poison and explosive training center camp. And this camp is located in northeastern Iraq."

Proving the link between al-Zarqawi and the Iraqi regime has thus far been impossible for the American intelligence community, as reported widely in the U.S. and foreign press. Al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian of Palestinian descent, is a shadowy figure who has recently been associated with the assassination last October of Laurence Foley, an American diplomatic officer in Jordan.

Al-Zarqawi is likely associated with al Qaeda.
this doesn't belong where he put it, btw.......should be farther down

He did visit Iraq, but only to be hospitalized in Baghdad for wounds suffered in Afghanistan in the fighting after Sept. 11, 2001, when thousands lost their lives on U.S. soil during attacks on the World Trade Center and Washington, D.C. But thus far, no information has been revealed that would show that al-Zarqawi ever met with Iraqi officials.

The idea that al-Zarqawi runs a "terrorist network" of his own or that he is the No. 3 figure in al Qaeda is hyperbole. There is no information available that shows that he is anything other than a foot soldier in connection with known al Qaeda operatives. The administration hypothesis is essentially "proof by proximity." They claim that al-Zarqawi had a group with whom he was operating, and that group could not be functioning in Baghdad without the complicity of Saddam Hussein's government.

http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Anthropology/publications/General_Powell.htm

he goes on to explain that Ansar al Islam, the group he may have been working with, is OPPOSED to Saddam, is located in Kurdistan, (not under Saddam's control), among other refutations of Powell's ridiculous sham presentation before the UN

oh yeah.....what about the FACT that Bush had three chances to bomb Zarqawi before the war, but that didn't exactly fit in with their plans for the war