Top al-Qaeda detainees deny links to Iraq

Top al-Qaeda planner and recruiter Abu Zubaydah, captured in March 2002, told the CIA that Osama bin Laden rejected proposals of working with Saddam Hussein because he did not want to be beholden to him, the Times said.

Al-Qaeda chief of operations Khalid Sheik Mohammed, captured in March this year, also told questioners that al-Qaeda did not work with Saddam.

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The Times said it had received information about the briefings from several intelligence officials, one of whom downplayed the significance of the denials, saying everything al-Qaeda detainees say must be regarded with skepticism.

Others, however, noted that President George W. Bush's administration had kept mum about the detainees' denials while playing up other details that seemed to support their case of a link between Iraq and al-Qaeda -- one of the stated justifications for launching war on Saddam Hussein.

"I remember reading the Abu Zubaydah debriefing last year, while the administration was talking about all of these other reports, and thinking that they were only putting out what they wanted," an unnamed official was quoted as saying.

The White House, State Department and Pentagon declined to comment to the Times on why results of the Zubaydah's interrogation were not made public.

"This gets to the serious question of to what extent did they try to align the facts with the conclusions that they wanted," an official told the Times.

"Things pointing in one direction were given a lot of weight, and other things were discounted."