Polls & Research

Half of Americans Link Hussein and al-Qaeda

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Many adults in the United States believe Saddam Hussein collaborated with a terrorist network, according to a poll by Knowledge Networks for the Program on International Policy Attitudes. 32 per cent of respondents think Iraq gave substantial support to al-Qaeda, and 18 per cent think the Iraqi government was directly involved in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Al-Qaeda operatives hijacked and crashed four airplanes on Sept. 11, 2001, killing nearly 3,000 people. In June 2004, the federal commission that investigated the events of 9/11 stated that there had been "no collaborative relationship" between the deposed Iraqi regime and the terrorist network in the planning and carrying out of the attacks.

In August 2006, U.S. president George W. Bush referred to the situation, saying, "Nobody has ever suggested that the attacks of September the 11th were ordered by Iraq. I have suggested, however, that resentment and the lack of hope create the breeding grounds for terrorists who are willing to use suiciders to kill to achieve an objective. I have made that case."

In September 2006, the Senate Intelligence Committee released a report which concludes that, although the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had evidence of "instances of contacts" between Iraqi authorities and al-Qaeda throughout the 1990s, these did not amount to a "formal relationship." Democratic Michigan senator Carl Levin said the document was a "devastating indictment" of the Bush administration's attempts to link Hussein and al-Qaeda.

The coalition effort against Saddam Hussein's regime was launched in March 2003. At least 3,004 American soldiers have died during the military operation, and more than 22,500 troops have been wounded in action. 51 per cent of respondents think Iraq either had actual weapons of mass destruction or a major program for developing them before the Iraq war started.

The final report of the Iraq Survey Group—presented to the U.S. Congress on Sept. 30, 2004—concluded that Hussein's regime did not possess chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, and had not implemented a significant program for their development.

Hussein was captured by coalition soldiers in Adwar—near his hometown of Tikrit—in December 2003. An Iraqi tribunal found the deposed Iraqi leader guilty of assassinating Shiite men and expelling women and children from the northeastern Iraqi town of Dujail in 1982. Hussein was executed in Baghdad on Dec. 30, 2006.

Polling Data

Please select what you think is the best description of the relationship between the Iraqi government under Saddam Hussein and the terrorist group al-Qaeda.

Is it your belief that, just before the war, Iraq: