the smoking gun?

This may be the biggest news story in a while.

Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein had an operational relationship from the early 1990s to 2003 that involved training in explosives and weapons of mass destruction, logistical support for terrorist attacks, al Qaeda training camps and safe haven in Iraq, and Iraqi financial support for al Qaeda—perhaps even for Mohamed Atta—according to a top secret U.S. government memorandum obtained by The Weekly Standard. …

According to the memo—which lays out the intelligence in 50 numbered points—Iraq-al Qaeda contacts began in 1990 and continued through mid-March 2003, days before the Iraq War began. Most of the numbered passages contain straight, fact-based intelligence reporting, which in some cases includes an evaluation of the credibility of the source. This reporting is often followed by commentary and analysis.

Glenn Reynolds has a solid roundup of links, including this statement from DoD which at first blush seems to be a disavowal:

News reports that the Defense Department recently confirmed new information with respect to contacts between al-Qaida and Iraq in a letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee are inaccurate. …

The items listed in the classified annex were either raw reports or products of the CIA, the NSA, or, in one case, the DIA. The provision of the classified annex to the Intelligence Committee was cleared by other agencies and done with the permission of the Intelligence Community. The selection of the documents was made by DOD to respond to the Committee’s question. The classified annex was not an analysis of the substantive issue of the relationship between Iraq and al Qaida, and it drew no conclusions.

But Stephen Hayes, the author of the Standard piece, is standing by the story. And Josh Chafetz at Oxblog sees the DoD press release as “very carefully crafted so as to avoid contradicting any claims that Hayes actually made in his article.” He makes a credible case.

Hmmm. Regardless of how this turns out, it's worth asking why the Senate Intelligence Committee seems to be leaking like a sieve as of late.