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Arlington, Va.: Recently you wrote the following:
"The Sept. 11 commission reported yesterday that it has found no 'collaborative relationship' between Iraq and al Qaeda, challenging one of the Bush administration's main justifications for the war in Iraq. "
You have slammed the Bush administration for setting up less obvious straw men than this. Why do you say that this challenges Bush, when it in facts supports everything he has ever said on the matter?
Dana Milbank: ....
Bush, in a February 2003 radio address, said: "Iraq has sent bombmaking and document forgery experts to work with al Qaeda. Iraq has also provided al Qaeda with chemical and biological weapons training. And an al Qaeda operative was sent to Iraq several times in the late 1990s for help in acquiring poisons and gases. We also know that Iraq is harboring a terrorist network headed by a senior al Qaeda terrorist planner. This network runs a poison and explosive training camp in northeast Iraq, and many of its leaders are known to be in Baghdad."
Commission spokesman Al Felzenberg on Friday said: "We found no evidence of joint operations or joint work or common operations between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein's government, and that's beyond 9/11."
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25168-2004Jun8.html