"Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein gave terror lord Osama bin Laden's thugs financial and logistical support, offering al Qaeda money, training and haven for more than a decade, [1] it was reported yesterday.

"Their deadly collaboration - which may have included the bombing of the USS Cole and the 9/11 attacks - is revealed in a 16-page memo to the Senate Intelligence Committee that cites reports from a variety of domestic and foreign spy agencies compiled by multiple sources, The Weekly Standard reports."

A book could be filled with the proclamations of learned pundits who doubted the existence of this link in print. Jacques Chirac knew better, according to a [2] BBC report from last year: "French President Jacques Chirac has said he knows of no relationship between Iraq and al-Qaeda, and has warned that a war against Baghdad could provoke terrorists to stage new attacks." In June in the New York Times, the great Paul Krugman [3] declared: "There was never any evidence linking Saddam Hussein to Al Qaeda; yet administration officials repeatedly suggested the existence of a link."

And not just learned pundits: [4] here is one from a bright and up-and-coming young man writing with great assurance last July in The Daily Athenaeum of august West Virginia University: "Oh, and one must not forget the Saddam-Osama link. Apparently most Americans believed there was one. Where it came from I don't know, but the administration certainly exploited the public's ignorance on that one; for the record, there is NO link between Saddam and al Qaeda."

And here, meanwhile, is a [5] not-so-learned "satire" from DemocraticUnderground.com, sneering at the idea of such a link last February.