The Connection: How al Qaeda's Collaboration with Saddam Hussein Has Endangered America (Hardcover)

by Stephen F. Hayes (Author) "In August 2000, Ahmed Hikmat Shakir, a thirty-seven-year-old Iraqi, quietly began his job as a "greeter" at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia..." (more)
Key Phrases: counterterrorism official, alleged meeting, intelligence officials, Saddam Hussein, United States, Ansar al Islam (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Weekly Standard reporter Hayes marshals a wealth of evidence that, in contrast with the tenuous connections that have so far made news, point to ties between Saddam Hussein's regime and al-Qaeda. Most intriguingly, Hayes finds links between Iraq and the 1993 World Trade Center bombers, one of whom apparently received shelter and financial support from Iraq after the attack. Hayes also gets confirmation by Czech officials of the alleged Prague meeting between September 11 hijacker Mohammed Atta and an Iraqi intelligence agent. Elsewhere, Hayes points to Iraqi intelligence documents that mention a "good relationship" with bin Laden. Other sources note an alleged agreement for Iraq to assist al-Qaeda in making chemical and biological weapons. Relying both on "open sources" like news articles, transcripts from the 1998 embassy bombing trials, as well as anonymous intelligence reports and informants, Hayes allows that some of these stories may prove unreliable. But he contends that the number, consistency and varied provenance of reports of high-level contacts between al-Qaeda and Iraq throughout the past decade allows one to "connect the dots" into a clear pattern of collaboration. Despite the frustrating absence of source notes and no knowledge of what cooperative efforts ever came of these contacts, most readers will conclude from this volume that the Saddam–al-Queda thread has some play left in it.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Description
In the wake of 9/11 no one knew when the next attack would come, or where it would come from. America's enemies seemed gathered on all sides, and for several nerve-racking months, we lived in fear that the perpetrators might be plotting another action or, worse, that our most dangerous enemies -- al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein's murderous regime in Iraq -- could be banding together against us.

The Bush administration and CIA director George Tenet warned against complacency and pointed to growing indications that al Qaeda and Iraq were in league. But their case was undercut by unnamed intelligence officials, skeptical politicians, and a compliant media. So America relaxed. A comforting consensus settled in: Osama bin Laden was an impassioned fundamentalist, Saddam a secular autocrat. The two would never, could never, work together. ABC News reported that there was no connection between them, and the New York Times said so too, and pretty soon just about everyone agreed.

Just about everyone was wrong.

In The Connection, Stephen Hayes draws on CIA debriefings, top-secret memos from our national intelligence agencies, and interviews with Iraqi military leaders and Washington insiders to demonstrate that Saddam and bin Laden not only could work together, they did -- a curious relationship that stretches back more than a decade and may include collaboration on terrorist acts, chemical-weapons training, and sheltering some of the world's most wanted radicals.

Stephen Hayes's bombshell Weekly Standard piece on this topic was cited by Vice President Cheney as the "best source of information" about the Saddam-al Qaeda connections. Now Hayes delves even deeper, exposing the inner workings of America's deadliest opponents and providing a clear-eyed corrective to reams of underreported, politicized, and just plain wrong information.

The Connection is both a gripping snapshot of the War on Terror and a case study in how bureaucratic assumptions and media arrogance can put us all at risk.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins (June 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060746734
• ISBN-13: 978-0060746735
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (96 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #359,151 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Hayes connects the dots, but . . . ., August 24, 2005

By	Jeffrey D. Salzer (Diamondhead, MS United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am a subscriber to the Weekly Standard and have followed Mr. Hayes' work for some time. In "The Connection" Mr. Hayes does a convincing job of demonstrating that a connection existed between Saddam Hussein and various terrorist organizations, including Al Qaeda, during the 1990's and during the first years of this decade. However, Mr. Hayes is also candid about what we still do not know, such as the full extent of those connections.

Mr. Hayes is particularly effective at offering quotes from various individuals and news organizations that once claimed that there was a connection when it suited their purposes, but who now insist that the "connection" is a recent fabrication of the Bush Administration.

The book is also very readable, but it suffers from two important flaws that prevented me from giving it 5 stars. The first flaw is the lack of an index, which if it had been added would make this book an excellent reference manual.

The second flaw is the almost complete lack of footnotes or citations of any kind. I do not doubt the truth of what Mr. Hayes says concerning what a particular person said, or what a particular document contained. However, properly footnoting his sources would have made this little book an even more effective argument against those who claim that no "connection" ever existed.

I, for one, am sufficiently interested in the subject matter that I would like to review some of the source documents. The speeches of Clinton era officials, and statements of various news organizations during the 1990's about the "connection" should be especially interesting when compared to the current position of many on the Left.

Nevertheless, I recommend "The Connection" with the above reservations and hope that a future edition corrects the defects noted above.

32 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars You can prove it to yoursef today...the connection is real, August 26, 2004

By	Michael Feldbush (USA, state of Idaho) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Do you really KNOW the truth about the connection? Read on and find out what I believe about this book and about "the connection"...

This review will address three issues:

1. simple, clear, hard evidence proving that there IS a connection between Iraq and al Qaeda
2. the issue of whether or not the 9/11 commission report finds "connections" between Iraq and al Qaeda
3. my reactions to reading this book

1. In April 2003 two newspapers-one in Toronto and one in Britain-published stories about a document their reporters found in the rubble of Iraq's intelligence headquarters after the fall of Baghdad. This document shows proof of a meeting between Iraqi intelligence and a highly placed al Qaeda operative in 1998. You can easily check it out for yourself. Go to one of the following newspaper web sites: www.star.com (that's the Canadian paper "Toronto Star") or www.telegraph.co.uk (that's the London paper "The Telegraph"). If you choose the Canadian paper, do a search for stories by journalist Mitch Potter. If you choose the British paper, do a search for stories by journalist Inigo Gilmore. In either paper, look for stories published on April 27, 2003. There's your independent proof in black and white. I am astounded that no other media outlets or government agencies have brought this out into the public's view.

2. Many folks have cited the 9/11 commission report to "prove" or "disprove" connections between Iraq and al Qaeda. Democrats have ranted that the report has found no such connection. Republicans have railed that the report shows a connection between Iraq and al Qaeda, just not a connection between Iraq and 9/11. In reality, most of those folks haven't read a single sentence of the report. The plain truth is, the 9/11 commission report doesn't state definitely one way or the other if there is or is not a connection. Why? My guess is because it wasn't an explicit part of the commission's mandate!! Read the report for yourself; page xv in the Preface outlines the commission's mandate (www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report.pdf). The report does treat the issue in a peripheral way; it cites intelligence reports that show there were attempts at meetings between Iraq and al Qaeda, it cites other reports stating there WERE meetings between the two sides, and it cites still other reports that suggest other alleged meetings in fact didn't take place. However, I searched for every instance of the word "Iraq" in the report (over 150), and nowhere does the report state a finding of fact or a judgment of the commission members that there is OR that there isn't a connection.

3. I gave this book three stars because it is generally well written; it is written in a thoughtful, measured way that shows the author did his homework, mostly using open source sources (i.e., media reports, etc.). It's true that there are no footnotes or endnotes, and there's no index, which is annoying. BUT, the author usually states in the body of the text the source from which he derived his material--i.e., which newspaper, the date a speech was given, or that it came from "top secret" intelligence memo. Hey, the guy's a journalist, and both conservative and liberal journalists have to protect their sources, right? In all, you have to make up your own mind about the book, but there is definite evidence presented to show a connection between the two groups does exist (including references to the newspaper articles I mentioned above).

In the final analysis, history takes time to unfold. It's way too premature for any one person to state the "definitive truth" about the war in Iraq or connections between Saddam and Osama. Heck, historians are finding out new things every day that changes our understanding of history that occurred ten, twenty, fifty, five hundred years ago! Who's to say the something won't emerge in a week or in five years that will give a very clear cut view of the extent of the connections between Saddam and Osama...

44 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fair and Balanced Review, June 3, 2004

By A Customer

Looking at the previous reviews of this book, the ones with few stars are obviously politically motivated. It's doubtful that they've read the book, and some indulge in outrageous and even dystopian tangents that have no connection to the subject at hand. However, after the outcry for "connecting the dots" after 9-11 it doesn't make sense to sweep other connected dots under the rug. Did Saddam Hussein have connections to terrorists? Indisputably. To argue otherwise is to hide one's head (to speak diplomatically) in the sand. Was he connected to 9-11? Possibly. The important thing to understand is that author Stephen F. Hayes can only put forth "dots". Like any good prosecuting attorney, he presents his case clearly, giving exhibits that build a case on circumstantial evidence. But to be fair, the "dots" that should have been connected to stop 9-11 (if it could be humanly stopped) are also tenuous, unless one sees them with the benefit of hindsight. I will not say whether Hayes (in the interest of full disclosure, it must be said he works for the _Weekly Standard_, which raises as much hackles as a worker for _The New York Times_ to a so-called Neo-Con) proves his case. READ THE BOOK FOR YOURSELF, especially before you have the temerity to write a negative review. In fact, the reviews (all reviews) of this book, including positive ones, should be ignored because they are meaningless. If one thinks Iraq is the centerpiece on the war on terror, the reviews will be positive (though also one has to admit in those cases the book was probably read); if one adamantly refuses to admit Saddam Hussein had ties to terror at all (which is a foolish decision) and think the Iraq leg on the war on terror a diversion or a sideshow (which is at least an arguable position, though I don't accept it) one probably isn't going to read the book because a belief may sometimes be shaken when confronted with cold facts. The important thing to do with this book is READ it and give the facts a fair hearing, even if you reject them. If you ever said the phrase "connect the dots" in relation to 9-11, you must read this book. Your opinion may not be changed (dogma rarely is) but you will at least see what connecting dots amounts to. It's done here to good advantage. Is the book true? How do I know -- I'm not a CIA operative! But it is IMPORTANT. Here are the facts. Accept them or reject them. In the climate the world is in at present, with terrorists crossing oceans to kill innocents, even affecting elections in western countries, you're doing yourself a disservice and even being dumb if you don't at least give these dots a fair hearing before writing your reviews to denegrate the book.