Isn’t the crux of the administration’s rationale for the war a tie between Iraq and the events of 9/11? Already disproven are the claims of weapons of mass destruction, the claims that Iraq was pursuing nuclear weapons, and the claims that Iraq somehow had other weapons which could threaten the United States.

An article on CNN today indicates that despite claims to the contrary, even the administration is now admitting there were no ties.

Secretary of State Colin Powell said on “Meet the Press”

“We know that there had been connections and there had been exchanges between al Qaeda and the Saddam Hussein regime. And those have been pursued and looked at,” Powell said on the program.

“But I have seen nothing that makes a direct connection between Saddam Hussein and that awful regime, and what happened on 9/11.”

Dick Cheney said on Friday, “al Qaeda organization had a relationship with the Iraqis.” But last June said “we don’t know” whether Iraq was involved in 9/11.

In September 2003, Cheney said Iraq under Saddam had been “the geographic base of the terrorists who have had us under assault now for many years, but most especially on 9/11.”

But at the time President Bush said, “We’ve had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with the September 11 [attacks]. What the vice president said was that he has been involved with al Qaeda.”

“The independent, bipartisan panel that investigated the attacks released its final report July 22. The 9/11 commission found there were numerous contacts between Iraq and al Qaeda in the 1990s, but it said those contacts did not result in a “collaborative relationship.””

Another quote from the article, this time from Kerry: “The president needs to answer the question: Who do you think is right? Vice President Cheney or Secretary Powell? And if it’s Secretary Powell, will you direct your vice president to stop misleading the American people?”

The Kerry statement continued: “On an issue of such importance, where U.S. troops are bearing nearly 90 percent of the burden, and American taxpayers are paying $200 billion and counting, the administration has an especially solemn obligation to conduct itself in an honest and straightforward way.

“Unfortunately, in its desperate attempts to reinvent a rationale for the Iraq war, this White House has repeatedly chosen to mislead the American people.”