Iraq contacted Al-Qaeda in 1990s in anti-Saudi move

Iraqi intelligence officials contacted Osama bin Laden in Sudan in the mid 1990s as part of efforts to work with organizations that opposed the ruling family in Saudi Arabia, according to a new document found in Iraq, The New York Times said. The contacts resulted in Iraq agreeing to rebroadcast anti-Saudi propaganda, while a request from bin Laden for joint operations against foreign forces in Saudi Arabia went unanswered, said officials who described the document as an internal report by the Iraqi intelligence service. There was no further indication of collaboration between Iraq and Al-Qaeda, said the daily which obtained a copy of the document several weeks ago. Deemed authentic by a task force of US government experts who reviewed it since it began circulating internally in April, the document seems to confirm the conclusions of a staff report issued last week by the commission investigating the September 11 attacks that contacts between Iraq and Al-Qaeda “do not appear to have resulted in a collaborative relationship”. Full Story