To the Point

Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and September 11

On Monday, Vice President Cheney said that Saddam Hussein -had long established ties with al Qaeda,- and a recent poll shows that 57 percent of Americans agree, including President Bush, who yesterday backed Cheney up. But today, the staff of the 9-11 Investigating Commission is throwing cold water on those claims. It turns out that Osama bin Laden asked to establish training camps in Iraq, but never got an answer; the terrorists were in constant communication by e-mail and cell phone, and they planned a much bigger assault than the one they finally pulled off. We hear the 9-11 Commission's latest revelations about how the US was attacked, and how much worse it might have been. Warren Olney leads speaks with journalists, former CIA operatives, experts on terrorism and homeland security, and a member of a commission that studied the terrorist threat before 9-11. Making News: Insurgents Strike at Iraq-s Oil Another Iraqi official has been gunned down in Baghdad and, for the second time in two days, one of Iraq-s most important oil pipelines has been bombed. The blasts have virtually shut down the country's oil industry. Nicholas Blanford of the Christian Science Monitor reports on the vulnerability of the pipeline and its implications for Iraq and international oil market. Reporter's Notebook: Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change Twenty-six former diplomats and high ranking military officers have called for the defeat of the Bush administration in November-s election. They include Admiral William Crowe, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the first Bush administration and President Clinton-s first ambassador to Great Britain. Another is career diplomat Arthur Hartman, President Carter-s Ambassador to France and President Reagan-s Ambassador to the Soviet Union.