EDITORIAL
Saddam and al-Qaida: Just a passing fancy?

The 9/11 commission last week released reports of its preliminary findings on al-Qaida, the 9/11 plot and the U.S. air defenses that were scrambled to meet the threat.

The commission has also concluded that there is no evidence that al-Qaida received direct financial aid from Saudi Arabia or its top officials.

With little time between release of each key document, there was a flurry of fascinating tidbits from each, but so far not enough cogent analysis to leave us much wiser.

But it's clear the commission is doing a good job of adding new information to the dialogue, as well as more usefully organizing existing data.

It's troubling to learn that the Sept. 11 attack was initially intended to be even more ambitious, involving 10 planes and targets on both coasts. In making public what key al-Qaida detainees have been spilling to their interrogators, we learn of frictions among the plotters and signs of indecision along the way.

It's more than troubling to learn of the unpreparedness and disarray that met the 9/11 attacks.

An indication of the chaos: President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney didn't have enough information to authorize U.S. fighter pilots to shoot down the hijacked jetliners until after the last one had already crashed.

The most frustrating finding by the commission is its assessment of dealings between al-Qaida and the Saddam regime in Iraq. Said the report: "We have no credible evidence that Iraq and al-Qaida co-operated on attacks against the United States."

The commission did acknowledge that meetings had taken place between Iraqi intelligence officers and al-Qaida operatives in the 1990s, but said there was no evidence it led to a working relationship.

Indeed, the commission found indications that Iraq at times failed to respond to al-Qaida feelers during this time.

Cheney, meanwhile, continues to claim there were "long-established ties" between the two. And President Bush last week said the report bears out what he's been saying all along: "there was a relationship" between them.

"This administration never said that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated between Saddam and al-Qaida," said Bush. "We did say there were numerous contacts" between them.

The administration's rhetoric hasn't always observed this nuance carefully. A plurality of Americans still believe Saddam plotted the Sept. 11 attacks, and they didn't dream up that idea on their own.

For Bush, it appears the fact that Iraq had a record of using terrorist techniques as well as contacts with al-Qaida was evidence enough that Iraq might be plotting the next 9/11, and thus a cause for war.

Americans can look forward to release of the full commission report this summer to help them decide whether Bush was justified in making war on Iraq, and whether that has made us safer.