Al Qaeda and Iraq: what the Clinton administration said

Historical revisionism aside, Powerline links to Victor Davis Hanson's latest, which spells out the Clinton administration's viewpoint on Al Qaeda and Iraqi cooperation. Note: odds are, you won't see this in the the New York Times or CNN.

Victor Davis Hanson reviews some of the evidence linking Saddam Hussein to al Qaeda. He also cites the Clinton Justice Department's 1998 indictment against bin Laden, which stated: al-Qaida reached an understanding with the Government of Iraq that al-Qaida would not work against that government and that on particular projects, specifically including weapons development, al-Qaida would work cooperatively with the Government of Iraq. The evidence pointed in the same direction in 2002, when Clinton-appointee George Tenet told the Senate: We have solid reporting of senior-level contacts between Iraq and al-Qaida going back a decade. ...If bin Laden could accept American assistance when he fought the Soviets in Afghanistan, it's difficult to see why he couldn't cooperate with Iraq in attacking U.S. interests... But the evidence doesn't matter to the administration's left-wing critics to whom the "no connection" theme is an article of faith.