http://www.msn.co.uk/news/breakingnews01/

Straw says Iraq lets al Qaeda operate
LONDON (Reuters) - Foreign Secretary Jack Straw says the extent of links between Iraq and al Qaeda is unclear but President Saddam Hussein is providing a "permissive environment" for the network to operate. "What we perceive in terms of intelligence is that the Iraqi regime appears to be allowing a permissive environment in which al Qaeda is able to operate," Straw told BBC radio on Wednesday. "Certainly we've seen evidence of links between al Qaeda and various people in Iraq. What we don't know...is the extent of those links," he said, adding that the case for military action against Baghdad was based on U.N. disarmament demands. Straw repeated British insistence that war with Iraq was still not inevitable, but was "more probable" than it had been earlier this year. He was speaking a few hours before U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell will use satellite photographs and recorded Iraqi conversations to try to persuade a sceptical world that Iraq is concealing its weapons of mass destruction and that war may be necessary to disarm it. Straw said the case for using force against Iraq unless it cooperated with U.N. disarmament demands was "overwhelming". "The case against them relates principally to their holdings of weapons of mass destruction," he said. "I don't believe even at this very late stage...that war is inevitable." "Sadly, the use of force to enforce the will of the United Nations is more likely, but there is still a very clear choice here for Saddam which is that he disarms and complies with (U.N. resolution) 1441 then there will be no use of force."


Fact is that the govement is using any little piece of evidence against Iraq, hypes it up through the mainstream press so it seems 1000 times worse than it is (the recent empty warheads saga is one example), in an attempt to:

1. Whip up anti-Iraq fervour in the country (somewhat unsucessfully)
2. Justify the war on Iraq by fabriacting evidence linking Saddam and Bin Laden.

What next, are they going to say Saddam has slept with Bin Laden??? Probable answer is, they'll do whatever it takes to get the oil.