You are patently wrong to say that Iraq had no relation to 9-11. This is a mantra repeated often, but is wholly false because Saddam and al-Qaeda were joined in the jihad against America. Saddam's henchmen were at work in the first WTC attack in 1993, well documented in the work by Laurie Mylroie "Attack Against America", with more documentation on their connections to the 9-11 attacks as well. Also, the book "The Connection" by Stephen Hayes provides much detail on the long-term cooperation between Saddam and Osama Bin Ladin and other Talibans. They were both up to their eyeballs in planning and carrying out the attacks. Other lesser-documented attacks included the Iraqi involvement with Tim McVeigh as the "Third Terrorist" in the OK City bombing of the Federal Building, and possibly also the TWA-800 explosion. There have been repeated attacks against American embassies, soldiers, ships, aircraft, and civilian targets, starting well before 9-11, and various Muslim terror groups and Islamic states were behind all of them. This history has been systematically and deliberately suppressed by those who hold leftist pro-Muslim views, who want to blame all the world's problems on the "Great Satan" USA, or the "Little Satan" Israel. The rhetoric of the International Left is therefore not different from the Islamo-fascists, and the failure to address and accept this large body of evidence about Iraq only plays into the hands of those who would sell out American and European freedoms for the empty promises of the new fascists.

But it also must be acknowledged, that Bush and his spokespersons have not done a good job to speak to these issues in public. They scarcely educate themselves, and have not taken steps to overcome the blockade against this body of evidence which had been erected by the Clinton people years earlier. VP Cheney gave some speeches about it, but authors like Mylroie and Hayes, or Davis on the 3rd Terrorist issue, or Cashill on the TWA-800 issue, are rarely interviewed and certainly liberal-left news sources pretend they and their documentary findings don't exist. Even the 9-11 Commission refused to call any but Mylroie to testify, and when she appeared, she was repeatedly interruped by the Democratic Party representatives, and basically blocked from repeating the essentials from her years of documenting this issue. They have clear supporters and vocal advocates in the CIA, FBI and NSA, but those agents also report great pressures to keep quiet about it, or have quit speaking out of frustration given the repeated distortions and misrepresentations of their words. But the historical facts are certified on these issues, and cannot be forever politically blockaded, or ignored as inconveniences.

To Joerg and Possum,

The 9-11 Commission invited Laurie Mylroie to testify, but not Hayes or the others I mentioned. I would consider the Davis and Cashill materials to be considered more suspect, as they don't have the 'smoking gun' quality of the Mylroie-Hayes materials. But the Mylrioe and Hayes materials are solid, and both are people of good reputation, not "conspiracy mongers". We know the guys who did the first WTC bombing, tracked them, and watched as some re-appeared in Iraq, or later as cohorts of Khalid Shiek Muhammed and the later 9-11 plotters. Mylrioe is former CIA, and Hayes a reporter for Weekly Standard. Again, they report on things which get a lot of attention in the conservative press in the USA, but which the liberal media -- which includes BBC, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS and C-Span -- simply doesn't report it, though they will report the mantra of "no connection" loudly and often, just as they do the "no WMDs" mantra, no matter how much material is shown to the media by US military or intelligence.

As I noted, VP Cheney already gave at least two major speeches on the subject, mentioning all such material, and other Republican leaders have done so. But it is simply NOT REPORTED in the mainstream media. Did you read, for example, about the new revelations of around 500 active WMD warheads discovered in Iraq, with either mustard-gas or sarin nerve gas, inventoried by US forces? And this is only the stuff in ready-to-go warheads, and does not include the tons of precursor chemicals and other material. Or that Joe Wilson really did lie, and that Iraqi intelligence WAS in Niger seeking out yellowcake? I don't think it is my job to educate anyone on this material, except to point out where the summary information can be found.

The anti-Bush people like to say this evidence does not exist, and then claim Americans support the Bush policy because they are stupid or ignorant. The fact is, European reporting is lacking in anything that would put the Bush policies in a justifiable framework, to suggest he was correct in sending troops into Iraq and Afghanistan, or that Iran and North Korea are dangers to the free world, etc. They will rarely report honestly on such things.

I know, from years of travel between USA and Europe, how much more open and free-wheeling is the American press reporting, compared to Europe, and this is mainly because of a thriving internet blogger community which proof-reads the major stories, and constantly corrects them. Also due to Fox News and other conservative sources which simply did not exist ten years back. Only in recent years does Europe gain access to such a treasure of alternative media sources.

Nevertheless, many Europeans "know" they are "better-informed" (why? because their news sources tell them so?). Europeans will know all what the left-wing NYTimes reports, what the left-wing BBC and CNN has to say, but Fox News, Weekly Standard, National Review, World Net Daily, FrontPage Magazine, jihadwatch.org, thereligionofpeace.org, and a hundred other mainstream conservative news sources are considered "off limits", even though they are composed with precise attention to fact. The misreporting and lies-of-omission (the worst kind of lie, Orwell noted) in the liberal-left press on such issues is gigantic.

I'd remind all in Germany, how terribly censored was the news in your nation in the years leading up to WW-I and WW-II. The press was used, happily by reporters under the narcotic sway of the Kaiser or the Fuhrer, to elevate the German cause of the day, to keep people ignorant, and whip up hatred against "the other". The same foundation of misreporting is generally true today, though certainly not so extreme. But it exists, and this time around, it is the "liberal progressives" who promulgate the distortions, who think they know everything, and so happily will scratch out every story which might undermine their world-view or favorite conclusions -- which is that Europeans are smarter, Bush is a dumb cowboy, America is fascist, and so on. For heaven's sake, some 30% of younger Germans cling to the 9-11 conspiracy theories, and absolutely LOVE Michael Moore and Noam Chomsky, two of the most disreputable sources on the planet. In the USA, they are well-known as cranks whom only the ultra-looney-Left pays attention to.

Don't accept my word for anything. Read the books by Mylroie and Hayes, for a good summary of the issues. They are only a summary, as much more has been learned since their publishing dates. Here are a few descriptions from an internet search:

* "THE CONNECTION: How al-Qaeda's Collaboration with Saddam Hussein Has Endangered America", by STEPHEN HAYES. A concise summary of the abundant evidence demonstrating close and on-going ties between Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Ladin and the al-Qaeda organization. Saddam Hussein was deeply engaged in sponsoring international terrorism, including the provision of money, materials, weapons, training and expertise to various members of OBL's al-Qaeda group, and also transfers of funds to Mohammed Atta, who almost certainly did meet with Iraqi intelligence services on several occasions. al-Qaeda groups and officials were hosted in Iraq on numerous occasions, brought to Saddam's "terror training schools" at Salaman Pak and elsewhere, given safe haven bases in Northern Iraq after the defeat of the Talibans, and so on. Ongoing terrorism against USA/UK coalitiion forces after the collapse of Saddam's military power was a consequence of the extensive terror-supporting networks already well-established in Iraq even before the terrible events of 9-11. Saddam was up to his eyeballs in sponsoring international terrorism, including attacks against both Israelis and Americans, including the first WTC bombing in NYC, and likely also 9-11. He and his intelligence and military deputies worked hand-in-hand with OBL, and their shared hatred of America overwhelmed whatever disputes they had with each other. The book also documents the incredible distortion and willful ignoring or watering-down of these connections by left-liberal branches of the international media, whose hatred of US President G.W. Bush seems to have overshadowed their ethical commitment to reporting the facts.

* "THE WAR AGAINST AMERICA: Saddam Hussein and the World Trade Center Attacks - A Study of Revenge", by LAURIE MYLROIE. Widely ignored in the years before and after 9/11, but now obtaining a renewed interest due to more recent findings that some of the same Islamo-fascist terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center in 1993, and who were assisted by Iraqi intelligence then, were later involved in the 9/11/2001 disaster. The book lays out facts indicating the masterminds of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing were supported by Iraqi intelligence: the large telephone bills between the organizers Muhammed Salameh and Ramsi Yusef, then living in New York, to known terrorists in Iraq; Yusef's escape and flight after the 1993 bombing to the Philippines, where he later joined an al-Qaeda plot to down 12 US airliners over the Pacific (Yusef's uncle, also involved, was the notorious al-Qaeda 9/11 planner, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, as detailed in the above book Masterminds of Terror). Another plotter, Abdul Rahman Yasin, fled to Baghdad where he was hosted and protected by Iraqi authorities up until the liberation of Iraq by coalition forces in 2003. Provides photocopies of telephone logs and other documents, detailing these and many other connections. Originally released before 9/11 under the titile "Study of Revenge."

FYI:
It actually is 33% of Germans under the age of 30, who believe Bush was involved in the 9-11 attacks:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1210/p07s01-woeu.html
Anti-US books find an eager audience among German youth
"A survey carried out in the spring by the Forsa Society for Social Research, an independent polling firm, shows that 1 in 3 Germans under the age of 30 says that the US government had something to do with the terrorist attacks, which sparked Bush's war on terror."

Here's a related item from around the same time, from the German press:

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,993523,00.html
9/11 Conspiracy Theory Books Dominate Debate at Frankfurt Book Fair

Perhaps it is not surprising people should believe this kind of stuff, if that's all they are exposed to. I would bet the Hayes or Mylroie books have not been translated into German, though every book by Michael Moore or Chomsky certainly has, along with the connection-denial books by the old Clinton administration supporters, who treated international terrorism as a police matter, something for the UN or Interpol, rather than as an act of war, which was the Bush policy change. (which I fully agree with).

On the 500 WMD issue:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,200499,00.html
Report: Hundreds of WMDs Found in Iraq
WASHINGTON — The United States has found 500 chemical weapons in Iraq since 2003, and more weapons of mass destruction are likely to be uncovered, two Republican lawmakers said Wednesday. ...

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=50746
Hundreds of WMDs discovered in Iraq
Bombshell report notes 500 chemical weapons including sarin, mustard gas, more to be found
The U.S. has located some 500 chemical weapons in Iraq since 2003 with more likely to be found, according to two Republican members of Congress trumpeting a newly declassified portion of a government report.
"We have found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, chemical weapons," Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., said at an afternoon news conference.
Santorum read from a declassified portion of a report by the National Ground Intelligence Center, a Defense Department intelligence unit, which noted: "Since 2003, coalition forces have recovered approximately 500 weapons munitions which contain degraded mustard or sarin nerve agent. Despite many efforts to locate and destroy Iraq's pre-Gulf War chemical munitions, filled and unfilled pre-Gulf War chemical munitions are assessed to still exist." ...

As to the Cheney speeches, I cannot easily locate them on internet as the speech titles and subjects on the government website are not identified, only the dates and locations of the speeches. But here is a link to an article which mentions the larger Saddam/9-11 connection, and Cheney's discussion of it to a reported with our liberal National Public Radio:

Clarke's Not Blind: Even the Dems' favorite grandstander sees the Saddam-9/11 link.
http://www.nationalreview.com/murdock/murdock200403260858.asp
"Vice President Dick Cheney told National Public Radio last January 22: "We've discovered since [Iraq's liberation] documents indicating that a guy named Abdul Rahman Yasin, who was a part of the team that attacked the World Trade Center in '93, when he arrived back in Iraq was put on the payroll and provided a house, safe harbor and sanctuary."

My points are based upon solid research as presented in the books I've cited, and these news sources, with links as you requested. And there are dozens more along the same lines presenting similar and additional evidence, which you or anyone else could find with a few hours of diligent searching of archives at the conservative news web pages.

I suggest, respectfully, you are not getting the facts from your usual news sources. The German and European press, like the mainstream liberal-left press in the USA, is largely controlled and biased, and needs to be double-checked on such important matters. It is axiomatic, that they WILL NOT REPORT ANYTHING which gives the Bush policy support or justification. And opinion polls repeatedly show, American reporters are overwhelmingly liberal democrats, with very small percentages of conservative Republicans. Do I have to document that also "with web links"? Do you doubt that it is similar in Europe?

I am especially stunned that you did not hear about the 500 WMD issue, which was all over the American press, even in the liberal ones -- though they tended as usual to discount the significance.