Page "Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda link allegations" Paragraph 68

: Due to the limited amount and questionable quality of reporting on the leadership intentions of Saddam Hussein and Usama bin Ladin, the CIA was unable to make conclusive assessments in " Iraqi Support for Terrorism " regarding Iraq's relationship with al-Qaeda.

The CIA stated in the Scope Note: Our knowledge of Iraq's ties to terrorism is evolving ... This paper's conclusions-especially regarding the difficult and elusive question of the exact nature of Iraq's relations with al-Qaeda-are based on currently available information that is at times contradictory and derived from sources with varying degrees of reliability ... While our understanding of Iraq ’ s overall connections to al-Qaeda has grown considerably, our appreciation of these links is still emerging.