World News 27-09-2002 Bush: Saddam Trained Al-Qa`eda Terrorists who: George W Bush what: Claims operational links exist between Iraq and Al-Qa`eda where: Washington DC when: Yesterday snippet: "Without providing any fresh evidence, the Bush administration continues to claim that there are operational links between Iraq and al-Qa`ida," reports a highly sceptical Andrew Buncombe in Independent this morning. "The latest allegations were said to be based on information from al-Qa`ida prisoners in US custody." Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that the USA had "solid evidence of the presence in Iraq of al-Qaeda members, and very reliable reporting of senior-level contacts going back a decade and of possible chemical and biological agent training." His assertions, adds The Times, "were part of an orchestrated attempt by the Bush Administration to draw links between the two as Washington tries to force the diplomatic pace between potential backers of military action." Equally cynical, The Scotsman points out that the Bush administration`s evidence "contrasts that of British intelligence, which has said there is nothing linking Iraq to the perpetrators of the 11 September attacks." Meanwhile The Guardian`s Matthew Engel reckons that "thousands of peace demonstrators" are due to descend on Washington tomorrow "in what could be the biggest weekend of protest in the US since the Seattle riots of 1999." While admitting that they will probably be ignored, he adds poetically that "they will gather with a growing sense that the anti-war forces in the US have, not the wind behind them exactly, but at least the first puffs of a breeze." [... more]

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