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U.N. Panel Reports No al-Qaida-Iraq Ties
By DAFNA LINZER, Associated Press Writer

UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. terrorism committee has found no evidence to support the Bush administration's claims of a link between Iraq (news - web sites) and al-Qaida, and the United States has provided the committee with no proof, officials said Thursday.

The committee, charged with investigating al-Qaida and the former Taliban rulers of Afghanistan (news - web sites), circulated a draft report on progress made to shut down Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s network worldwide.

"Nothing has come to our notice that would indicate links between Iraq and al-Qaida," said Michael Chandler, the committee's chief investigator.

He and others revealed that the first they had heard of any links was during Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites)'s February presentation to the Security Council ahead of the Iraq war.

"It had never come to our knowledge before the Powell's speech, and we never received any information from the United States for us to even follow-up on," said Abaza Hassan, a committee investigator.

Calls to U.S. diplomats at the United Nations (news - web sites) were not immediately returned.

Powell insisted in his presentation that Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s regime was allowing a senior al-Qaida member named Abu Musab Zarqawi to operate from Baghdad. Zarqawi has been indicted for the murder of a U.S. diplomat in Jordan on Oct. 28, 2002.

The alleged connections were cited by the administration as one of the key reasons for going after Saddam.

But the committee saw no need to even investigate Zarqawi's movements. The Jordanian indictment does not refer to Zarqawi as having been a member of al-Qaida.

The committee is investigating al-Qaida activity in Iran, however, and for the first time, has added a Chechen to its list of al-Qaida members. Russia has long insisted on a relationship between the Chechens and bin Laden's group.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=736&e=1&u=/ap/20030626/ap_o...