WASHINGTON, Oct 5 (AFP) - The White House on Tuesday insisted there were "ties" that linked the former regime of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to the Al-Qaeda terror network.
"There are clearly ties between Iraq and, between the regime, Saddam Hussein's regime and Al-Qaeda. And there are clearly some disturbing similarities that existed as well," White House press secretary Scott McClellan told reporters at a press briefing.
McClellan was quizzed about the administration's assertions a day after Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he had not seen "any strong, hard evidence" linking Saddam to Al-Qaeda.
The defense secretary subsequently issued a statement saying he had been misunderstood, and that "there were ties between Al-Qaeda and Iraq."
"Let's look at the facts about the relationship between the (Saddam) regime and Al-Qaeda. We know there were senior-level contacts between the regime and Al-Qaeda. The 9/11 Commission documented those contacts in their report for everybody to go and look at," McClellan said.
"We know that Zarqawi, a known Al-Qaeda associate, operated in and out of Baghdad prior to the war. We know that he was in Baghdad when he ordered the killing of an American diplomat in Jordan, Lawrence Foley," McClellan said, referring to suspected Al-Qaeda operative Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi.
"The regime and Al-Qaeda both celebrated the September 11th (2001) attacks in America," he added.
Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry has criticised Republican President George W. Bush for attacking Iraq at a time when Kerry says the United States should have focused on hunting down Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.
However, the Bush administration says it took the fight to Saddam and Iraq in order to avoid having to deal with terrorism on US soil.