Originally posted by MrFatBooty
Osama bin Laden started--and still runs--Al Qaeda. Any ties between Al Qaeda and Saddam if they even exist at all, are minimal at best.
I find it highly doubtful that any sort of credible news agency would claim that Saddam started Al Qaeda.
It is easy to make the association because both Saddam and bin Laden are both arabs and both don't like the USA, but that's merely a coincidence.
While i can't dispute that Osama is the leader of Al Queda, the fact of the matter is that he is a leader along the same lines as the Queen of England. That is that he is merely a figurehead. Each of the Al Queda terrorist cells is basically autonomous. Each cell works within it's own people and camps to carry out attacks on US interests.
With that said(and myself not divulging any classified information), it is definately possible and highly probable that one or more of those same Al Queda(or equivalent, Al Queda isn't the only one. just the one that the news broadcasts to the world.) terrorist cells could be/is working with the Hussein regime to carry out attacks on US, or our allies' interests using weapons of mass destruction or improvised weapons of mass destruction. While there may or may not be any direct connection between Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, the fact still remains that neither of them is or has been in complete control of their regime/network(respectively) and there are other high level members of their regime/network that call the shots too.
edit: In short, it's most likely not a connection between Osama and Saddam individually, but more like a connection between [insert your favorite terrorist cell here] and the regime that Saddam is(or was at this point
) the leader of.