After the first appearances of anthrax at NBC television and the New York Times 10 days ago, sections of the US intelligence community, politicians and experts in the field were quick to see the hand of Saddam Hussein. First among them was the former CIA head, James Woolsey.

-21 October 2001, FOCUS SPECIAL: The Terrorism Crisis: OUTBREAK: So who is terrorising America with anthrax?”, by Ed Vulliamy and Ed Helmore in New York, The Observer.

The next day:

To strengthen Saddam’s position in the Arab world during his 1998 crisis with the U.N., bin Laden established the “World Islamic Front for Jihad Against the Jews and the Crusaders.” The Muslim-in-name Iraqi dictator reciprocated by promising secure refuge in Iraq for bin Laden and his key lieutenants if they were forced to flee Afghanistan.

Bin Laden sent a delegation of his top Al Qaeda terrorists to Baghdad on April 25, 1998, to attend the grand celebration that week of Saddam’s birthday. It was then that Saddam’s bloody-minded son Uday agreed to receive several hundred Al Qaeda recruits for terrorist training in techniques unavailable in Afghanistan.

That Baghdad birthday party, according to an unpublished spying report, celebrated something else: Uday Hussein’s agreement with bin Laden’s men to formally establish a joint force consisting of some of Al Qaeda’s fiercest “Afghan Arab” fighters and the covert combatants in Iraqi intelligence unit 999.

-22 October 2001, “Advance the Story”, by William Safire, New York Times.

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