CIA Questions Saddam's Ties to Al Qaeda

"This is a murky story," said Condoleezza Rice, Bush's national security adviser. "I'm sure we'll find out more but what we do know about Zarqawi is that he knew Iraq well."

Since then, the president has subtly altered his language when discussing Zarqawi's presence in Baghdad before the war. Bush no longer maintains Zarqawi was harbored by Saddam, just that he was there.

In campaign stops on Oct. 1 and 2, Bush said, "Zarqawi was in and out of Baghdad."

Now Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld says he knows of no intelligence linking Saddam and al Qaeda.

In prepared remarks given at the Council on Foreign Relations on Monday, Rumsfeld said, "I have not seen any strong hard evidence that links the two."

The CIA assessment was originally reported by Knight-Ridder newspapers.