by Peter Mackler
WASHINGTON, July 22 (AFP) - A national commission probing the September 11, 2001, attacks spotlighted Thursday ties between al-Qaeda and Iran but found no sign of the "operational" terrorist links to Iraq used to justify war against Baghdad.
The assessments, made in the eagerly awaited final report of the bipartisan 10-member panel, added new fuel to an already raging election-year debate over the Bush administration`s decision to invade Iraq.
The commissioners ruled out direct involvement of Saddam Hussein`s regime in the attacks on New York and Washington that left nearly 3,000 people dead, but could not exclude other forms of cooeration between Iraq and al-Qaeda.
Yet it reserved its most accusatory tone for Iran, another member of President George W. Bush`s "axis of evil," which has yet to come into the United States` military crosshairs.
The panel said Tehran operatives maintained contacts with al-Qaeda for years and may have provided transit for at least eight of the 19 men who wreaked havoc in the United States with hijacked airliners on September 11.
Al-Qaeda and Iranian operatives struck an accord in late 1991 or 1992 to provide training for assaults on Israel and the United States, and terrorist leaders and trainers went to Iran for instruction in explosives, the report said.
The commission said that "intelligence indicates the persistence of contacts between Iranian security officials and senior al-Qaeda figures" after Osama bin Laden returned to Afghanistan from Sudan in 1996.
It quotes captured terrorist leader Walid bin Attash, known as Khallad, as saying Tehran tried to strengthen ties with al-Qaeda after the 2000 attack on the USS Cole but was rebuffed by bin Laden out of concern for Saudi sensitivities.
It also cites captured September 11 planner Ramzi Binalshibh as saying that at least eight hijackers transited Iran en route to and from Afghanistan, "taking advantage of the Iranian practice of not stamping Saudi passports."
The report said circumstantial evidence suggested that senior operatives of the Iranian-supported group Hezbollah closely tracked the travel of some hijackers into Iran in November 2000. But it said this may just be coincidence.
"We found no evidence that Iran or Hezbollah was aware of the planning for what later became the 9/11 attack," the panel said.
"At the time of their travel through Iran, the al-Qaeda operatives themselves were probably not aware of the specific details of their future operations."
The panel called for further investigation by the government, which Bush has already promised.
A senior CIA official acknowledged "some murkiness" on Tehran`s relationship with al-Qaeda but said it was possible that the Iranians had some "operational knowledge" of its activities.
"It`s harder to make the leap that they were directing operations like that," said the official, who asked not to be named.
On Iraq, the commission appeared intent on not being drawn into the polemic over whether Iraq`s contacts to al-Qaeda were sufficient grounds for sending troops to topple Saddam last year.
It found no evidence of a "collaborative operational relationship" between Baghdad and the terrorists, adding a tantalizing qualifier to a staff report in June that had ruled out a "collaborative relationship."
Commission chairman Thomas Kean acknowledged that the panel was "very careful in our wording" to make the distinction between support for the 9/11 attacks and other potential forms of contact or cooperation.
"There was no question in our minds that there was a relationship between Iraq and al-Qaeda," he told a news conference. "At one point, it was thought maybe even al-Qaeda would find sanctuary in Iraq."
He said talks went on over the years, "sometimes successful and sometimes unsuccessfully," and that Baghdad may even have provided al-Qaeda with chemicals.
But Kean added: "We have found no relationship whatever between Iraq and the attack on 9/11. That just doesn`t exist."
The report also cleared Saudi Arabia`s government or officials of suspicions they had provided financing for al-Qaeda` activities.
But it archly refused to exclude "the likelihood that charities with significant Saudi government sponsorhip diverted funds to al-Qaeda."