The US has information that Iraq has helped train members of al-Qaeda in chemical weapons development and has given refuge to some of the operatives of the terror network, a top White House official disclosed late Wednesday.
The remarks by national security adviser Condoleezza Rice marked the first time the administration of President George W. Bush has tried to substantiate its claim that the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the militant Islamic group led by Osama bin Laden had a working relationship.
They also came when the debate over Iraq policy and other national security issues degenerated into loud political squabbling, as congressional Democrats accused Bush of trying to exploit the war on terror for political gain.
Appearing on PBS's The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer television show, Rice tried to move the discussion to a more substantive level as she offered a glimpse of Iraq's suspected ties to al-Qaeda.
"We clearly know that there were in the past and have been contacts between senior Iraqi officials and members of al-Qaeda going back for actually quite a long time," said Rice.
"We know too that several of the detainees, in particular some high-ranking detainees, have said that Iraq provided some training to al-Qaeda in chemical weapons development," she added.
In an intelligence dossier released on Tuesday, the British government said Iraq continues to maintain a robust chemical weapons program and would be able to deploy its chemical weapons within 45 minutes.
Meanwhile, US troops based in Afghanistan have discovered several underground laboratories as well as documents indicating that al-Qaeda had been trying to build crude chemical weapons, according to US military officials.
Rice said the US government did not contend that Saddam Hussein was behind the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, when suspected al-Qaeda hijackers rammed passenger planes into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon building outside Washington.
But she said that the secret ties between Baghdad and bin Laden's terror network was "a story that is unfolding, and it is getting clear, and we're learning more."
"So, yes, there are contacts between Iraq and al-Qaeda," Rice insisted. "We know that Saddam Hussein has a long history with terrorism in general. And there are some al-Qaeda personnel who found refuge in Baghdad."
She did not give any specific names.
The national security adviser said that much of the new information about the relationship between Baghdad and bin Laden associates had been provided by terror suspects held at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and elsewhere.
"There clearly is testimony that some of the contacts have been important contacts and that there's a relationship here," Rice pointed out without providing details.
She said that when the picture became clearer, the US government would make full disclosure about it.
But as the top White House foreign policy aide was making new allegations about the Iraq--al-Qaeda connection, a new media report indicated that some bin Laden associates might have found a home in Iran.
US intelligence has detected a suspected al-Qaeda training camp in a remote area of eastern Iran along the border with Afghanistan, NBC News reported.
The report, which cited unnamed sources, said satellite imagery had show what appeared to be a facility complete with an obstacle course and a rifle range, much like those used by bin Laden in Afghanistan to train for assassinations.
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