Reply #2: we get this from another retired fbi manager. --too too late.

[rodeodance]

John M. Cole, who retired late last year from the FBI as program manager for foreign intelligence investigations covering Pakistan and Afghanistan, says he and other managers were tasked before the war with exhausting all sources in the field for information tying Iraq to al-Qaeda.

"Everybody was tasked," he recalls in a exclusive interview. "Right before we attacked, my unit chief came over and said, 'OK, I want you to e-mail the field divisions and ask them to check their sources to find if they're aware of any connection between al-Qaeda or any terrorist groups and the Iraqi government.'"

Cole, who worked out of FBI headquarters, says the bureau-wide search did not turn up any substantive links.

"We had some very good sources, and I sent the communication out, and they all came back negative – nothing that they were aware of," he says. "Some of them said al-Qaeda doesn't even get along with the Iraq regime because they're not fundamentalist enough, and there were other reasons why they didn't associate with each other."