| U.S. national security advisor Condoleeza Rice said Sunday links between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida go back for more than a decade. "We know that going back for more than a decade, there have been contacts and connections between security personnel from the Iraq security services and al-Qaida," she said. In an interview on FOX News Sunday, Rice also said NATO-has approved training missions in Iraq, in response to Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi’s request for more aid. She said trained army personnel not yet engaged in the security forces will train the Iraqi forces. On connections between al-Qaida and the former Iraqi ruler, Rice said al-Qaida also had provided expertise in "bomb-making and document forgery" to the Saddam regime. She said the U.S. security agencies knew that terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was was "operating out of Iraq." |