Bush administration officials alleged that the Saddam Hussein regime had an operational relationship with al-Qaeda (even though there was scant credible evidence of such a relationship at the time), basing the administration's rationale for war, in part, on this allegation and others.Ī 2007 Pentagon Inspector General report concluded that Douglas Feith's office in the Department of Defense had 'developed, produced, and then disseminated alternative intelligence assessments on the Iraq and al Qaida relationship, which included some conclusions that were inconsistent with the consensus of the Intelligence Community, to senior decision-makers.' In the lead-up to the Iraq War, George W. government officials, who claimed that a highly secretive relationship existed between Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the radical Islamist militant organization Al-Qaeda between 19, specifically through a series of meetings reportedly involving the Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS).

The Saddam–al-Qaeda conspiracy theory was a conspiracy theory based on allegations made by U.S.

For the al-Qaeda presence involved in the Iraqi insurgency, see Al-Qaeda in Iraq. This article is about issues concerning allegations of pre- invasion links between Iraq and al-Qaeda.

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