Claim: Saddam Hussein was accused of ties to a terrorist group.

Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda link allegations were made by the U.S. government officials who claimed that a highly secretive relationship existed between former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the radical Islamist militant organization Al-Qaeda from 1992 to 2003 , specifically through a series of meetings reportedly involving the Iraqi Intelligence Service -LRB- IIS -RRB- . In the lead up to the Iraq War , U.S. President George W. Bush alleged that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and militant group al-Qaeda might conspire to launch terrorist attacks on the United States , basing the administration 's rationale for war , in part , on this allegation and others . The consensus of intelligence experts has been that these contacts never led to an operational relationship , and that consensus is backed up by reports from the independent 9/11 Commission and by declassified Defense Department reports as well as by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence , whose 2006 report of Phase II of its investigation into prewar intelligence reports concluded that there was no evidence of ties between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda . Critics of the Bush Administration have said Bush was intentionally building a case for war with Iraq without regard to factual evidence . On April 29 , 2007 , former Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet said on 60 Minutes , `` We could never verify that there was any Iraqi authority , direction and control , complicity with al-Qaeda for 9/11 or any operational act against America , period . ''