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There is a pervasive misunderstanding that the US invaded Iraq because of the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001. One public opinion poll asked, "To the best of your knowledge, how many of the September 11 hijackers were Iraqi citizens?" In January 2003, fifty percent of respondents guessed, incorrectly, that one or more of the Sept. 11 hijackers were Iraqi. The correct answer is "none." (This survey of 1200 Americans was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates on behalf of Knight Ridder.)

Only the previous month, the U.S. government had released a report titled "Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities before and after the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001." The report cited the CIA's dismissal of a claim that "Iraq had formed a suicide pilot unit that it planned to use against British and U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf" as "highly unlikely and probably disinformation." It also quoted Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet saying that "we are still working to corroborate" whether the would-be Sept. 11 hijacker Mohammed Atta left the U.S. to meet an Iraqi intelligence officer in 2001.

On Sept. 17, 2003, months after the invasion of Iraq, President George W. Bush admitted: "We have no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with the 11 September attacks. What the vice-president said was is that he [Saddam] has been involved with al-Qaeda...There's no question that Saddam Hussein had al-Qaeda ties." The previous day, in response to a new public opinion poll showing that 70 percent of Americans believed Saddam Hussein was involved in the planning of the Sept. 11 attacks, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld had commented: "I've not seen any indication that would lead me to believe that I could say that [Saddam was involved]."

The lengthy report from the 9/11 Commission, released July 22, 2004, was devoted to an official, bipartisan, comprehensive investigation of the September 11 attacks. Only three pages (pp. 334-336) even mention Iraq, and only then to clarify that President Bush never tied Saddam Hussein to the September 11 attacks. The report says: "Responding to a presidential tasking, Clarke's office sent a memo to Rice on September 18, titled 'Survey of Intelligence Information on Any Iraq Involvement in the September 11 Attacks.' Rice's chief staffer on Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalizad, concurred in its conclusion that only some anecdotal evidence linked Iraq to al Qaeda. The memo found no 'compelling case' that Iraq

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