The 9/11 Commission and its staff, aided and abetted by their fawning fans in the establishment press, did their level best to bury, marginalize and dilute any suggestion that Iraq and al Qaeda had a meaningful relationship. After all, the lack of a tie to the terrorists would have meant a lack of a rationale to extend the war on terror to Iraq, which would please war opponents, make the Bush administration appear foolish, and, in general, help the Kerry campaign. We talked about it here while it was happening back in summer 2004 (see, e.g., here and here).

And boy did it ever work. The conventional wisdom became that there was no connection and, as Jonah’s excellent article today details, the Bush administration assumed a self-defeating defensive posture, refusing to fight back when they had a very good case.

Well, well, well. It looks like the Iraq intel files may be starting to change perceptions. 9/11 Commission Bob Kerrey, for one, is certainly singing a different tune according to today’s NYSun:

The new documents suggest that the 9/11 commission’s final conclusion in 2004, that there were no “operational” ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda, may need to be reexamined in light of the recently captured documents.
While the commission detailed some contacts between Iraq and Al Qaeda in the 1990s, in Sudan and Afghanistan, the newly declassified Iraqi documents provide more detail than the commission disclosed in its final conclusions. For example, the fact that Saddam broadcast the sermons of al-Ouda at bin Laden’s request was previously unknown, as was a conversation about possible collaboration on attacks against Saudi Arabia.
“This is a very significant set of facts,” former 9/11 commissioner, Mr. Kerry said yesterday. “I personally and strongly believe you don’t have to prove that Iraq was collaborating against [ACM note – I suspect he misspoke and meant “collaborating with”] Osama bin Laden on the September 11 attacks to prove he was an enemy and that he would collaborate with people who would do our country harm. This presents facts should not be used to tie Saddam to attacks on September 11. It does tie him into a circle that meant to damage the United States.”
Mr. Kerry also answered affirmatively when asked whether or not the release of more of the documents captured in Iraq could possibly shed further light on Iraq’s relationship with al Qaeda. The former senator was one of the staunchest supporters of the 1998 Iraq Liberation Act, which made the policy of regime change U.S. law.