ZOOM

The NRO's Mark Levin has a good piece on this as well. He points out that Stephen Hayes has done a lot of good work in this area on the Iraq-al Qaeda link.
Levin also points out the Senate committee has anti-Bush Republicans (like Chuck Hagel) on the committee.

One Republican staffer told Byron York “We don’t have a majority on the committee" -- pointing out that two moderate Republicans in Hagel and Olympia Snowe are as likely to vote Democrat.

But a real key to what York points out: A key Hagel staffer was a Kerry volunteer and studied under key Kerry advisor Rand Beers.

There's also this: In Nov. 1998, the DOJ under the direction of Janet Reno, indicted bin Laden . In that indictment, the DOJ alleges:

4. Al Qaeda also forged alliances with the National Islamic Front in the Sudan and with the government of Iran and its associated terrorist group Hezballah for the purpose of working together against their perceived common enemies in the West, particularly the United States. In addition, al Qaeda reached an understanding with the government of Iraq that al Qaeda would not work against that government and that on particular projects, specifically including weapons development, al Qaeda would work cooperatively with the Government of Iraq.

Did the Clinton administration know in 1998 when they made this allegation and when they bombed Iraq, Afghanistan and the Sudan it was all a lie? Or was it true and is Hayes is correct about a long-running connection?

Finally there is this column by Thomas Joscelyn who pretty much wrecks the notion the committee was ever really interested in the getting to the real issue.