Former counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke insisted to media during the spring 9-11 commission hearings that Saddam Hussein had no connection to al-Qaida, but the panel's final report says that in February 1999 he feared Osama bin Laden might flee to Baghdad.
The report, on page 134 [Requires PDF viewer], says Clarke was nervous about a U-2 surveillance mission over Afghan tribal areas proposed by the CIA, because "he continued to fear" that bin Laden might "leave for someplace less accessible."
Clarke wrote to Deputy National Security Advisor Donald Kerrick, according to the 9-11 report, that "one reliable source reported [bin Laden's] having met with Iraqi officials, who 'may have offered him asylum.'"
