The reporting, and the commentary that followed, so angered Cheney that he said, on June 18, "What the New York Times did today was outrageous. The fact of the matter is, the evidence [of an Iraq-al Qaeda link] is overwhelming." Further coverage and commentary criticized Cheney for stubbornly sticking to his position.

Both the Times and the Post based their reporting on a single paragraph, written by the staff of the September 11 Commission, which conceded a few ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda but said there was no "collaborative relationship" between the two. The findings, revealed in the commission's last hearing on June 17, were preliminary, and the apparent rush by some in the press to deny any Iraq-al Qaeda relationship left commission vice-chairman Lee Hamilton baffled. "I must say I have trouble understanding the flack over this," Hamilton told reporters. "The Vice President is saying, I think, that there were connections between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein's government. We don't disagree with that. So it seems to me the sharp differences that the press has drawn, the media has drawn, are not that apparent to me."

Now, with the release of the commission's final report, it is clear what Hamilton and Cheney were talking about. The final report details a much more extensive set of contacts between Iraq and Al Qaeda than the earlier staff statement. It also modifies the original "no collaborative relationship" description, now saying there was "no collaborative operational relationship" (emphasis added) between Iraq and Al Qaeda. And it suggests a significant amount of contact and communication between the regime of Saddam Hussein and the terrorist organization headed by Osama bin Laden.

People of America, some people had held you in high esteem in the past, however now the majority of you have been exposed as wretched people who have no part in noble conduct. You vote for the most corrupt amongst you whose lies have increased and whose manners have decreased. Your wealthiest and most powerful in media and influence treat you like their slaves, especially the Jews who manipulate you from behind them.

They do this under the delusion of democracy in order to prop up Israelis and their plans to attack our religion at the expense of our blood and land as well as your blood and economy

Recent events have proved this.

What pushed you to attack Iraq, who has nothing for you, except to prove that you are manipulated? Bush came and with him his gang, the people of extravagant shoes and cold hearts who are a great harm upon the blood, wealth, environment and moral conduct of the whole of mankind. They came to inflict relentless powerful blows on truthfulness which is the foundation of moral conduct, each one landing from their position until they have made it a professional skill before the world. Through this behaviour of theirs they promote hypocrisy. They purchase immunity and abuse it. They spread political corruption at the level of international heads of states without any shame. These individuals and their leaders delight in lying, war, plunder and killing for the sake of their own appetites. Their smoking pipes are still dripping with blood from corpses of the children of Vietnam and Somalis, and from the children of Afghanistan and Iraq. Therefore they regard you as trivial and exploit you.

Once again they wage war on Iraq. They lie to you, and to the whole world.