America still blames Saddam for 9/11

NEARING the second anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, seven in 10 Americans continue to believe that Saddam Hussein had a role in the attacks.

This is in spite of the fact the Bush administration and congressional investigators say they have no evidence of this.

Sixty-nine percent of Americans said they thought it at least likely that Hussein was involved in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, according to a poll conducted by the Washington Post poll. That impression, which exists despite the fact that the hijackers were mostly Saudi nationals acting for al-Qaida, is broadly shared by Democrats, Republicans and independents.

The main reason for the endurance of the apparently groundless belief, experts in public opinion say, is a deep and enduring distrust of Hussein that makes him a likely suspect in anything related to Middle East violence. "It's very easy to picture Saddam as a demon," said John Mueller, a political scientist at Ohio State University and an expert on public opinion and war. "People know they don't like al-Qaida, they are horrified by September 11, they know this guy is a bad guy, and it's not hard to put those things together."

Although that belief came without prompting from Washington, Democrats and some independent experts say US President George W Bush exploited the apparent misconception by implying a link between Hussein and the September 11 attacks in the months before the war with Iraq. "The notion was reinforced by these hints, the discussions that they had about possible links with al-Qaida terrorists," said Andrew Kohut, a pollster who leads the non-partisan Pew Research Centre for the People and the Press.

The poll's findings are significant because they help to explain why the American public continues to support operations in Iraq, despite the setbacks and bloodshed there. Americans have more tolerance for war when it is provoked by an attack, particularly one by an all-purpose villain such as Hussein.

Mr Bush's opponents say he encouraged this misconception by linking al-Qaida to Hussein in almost every speech.

In late 2001, Vice-president Cheney said it was "pretty well confirmed" that attack mastermind Mohamed Atta met with a senior Iraqi intelligence official. But this summer's congressional report on the attacks appears to cast some doubt over these claims.

Mr Bush frequently juxtaposed Iraq and al-Qaida in ways that hinted at a link. In a March speech about Iraq's "weapons of terror". "If the world fails to confront the threat posed by the Iraqi regime, refusing to use force, even as a last resort, free nations would assume immense and unacceptable risks.

"The attacks of September the 11, 2001, showed what the enemies of America did with four airplanes. We will not wait to see what terrorists or terrorist states could do with weapons of mass destruction."

Then, in declaring the end of major combat in Iraq on May 1, he linked Iraq and the September 11 attacks: "The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on September the 11, 2001 and still goes on. That terrible morning, 19 evil men the shock troops of a hateful ideology gave America and the civilised world a glimpse of their ambitions." Moments later, Mr Bush added: "The liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against terror.

"We have not forgotten the victims of September 11 the last phone calls, the cold murder of children, the searches in the rubble. With those attacks, the terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States. And war is what they got."

A number of non-government officials close to the Bush administration have made the link more directly.

Richard N Perle, who until recently was the chairman of the Pentagon's Defence Policy Board, long argued that there was Iraqi involvement, calling the evidence "overwhelming".

Some Democrats said that, although Mr Bush did not make the direct link to the 2001 attacks, his implications helped to turn the public fury over September 11 into support for war against Iraq.

"You couldn't distinguish between al-Qaida and Saddam Hussein," said Democratic tactician Donna Brazile.

"My mother said if you repeat a lie long enough, it becomes a gospel truth. This one became a gospel hit."