Ex-M15 spy chief: No link between Iraq and 9/11
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The war in Iraq led to a loss of focus on the threat from al-Qaeda, emboldened al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and helped to breed a generation of homegrown terrorists, Britain's former domestic spy chief told a UK inquiry Tuesday.
Making the sharpest criticism so far aired in the inquiry, Eliza Manningham-Buller, director of the MI5 agency between 2002 and 2007, said Britain's government paid little attention to warnings that the war would fuel domestic terrorism. Manningham-Buller also said Iraq had posed little threat before the 2003 US-led invasion, and insisted there was no evidence of a link between former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. (AP)
