Saddam, Al-Qaeda Did Collaborate, Documents Show

Former Democratic senator and 9/11 commissioner Bob Kerrey says a recently declassified Iraqi account of a 1995 meeting between Osama bin Laden and a senior Iraqi envoy presents a "significant set of facts," and shows a more detailed collaboration between Iraq and al-Qaeda.

In an interview Thursday, Kerrey said the new document shows that "Saddam was a significant enemy of the United States."

On Thursday ABC News reported on five recently declassified documents captured in Iraq. One of these was a handwritten account of a February 19, 1995, meeting between an official representative of Iraq and bin Laden himself, where bin Laden broached the idea of "carrying out joint operations against foreign forces" in Saudi Arabia.

When Saddam was informed of the meeting on March 4, 1995, he agreed to broadcast sermons of a radical imam, Suleiman al-Ouda, requested by bin Laden.

The new documents suggest that the 9/11 commission's final conclusion in 2004, that there were no "operational" ties between Iraq and al-Qaeda, may need to be reexamined in light of the recently captured documents.