I missed this, but on Monday, President Bush again denied linking Iraq and 9/11:

Mr. President, at the beginning of your talk today you mentioned that you understand why Americans have had their confidence shaken by the events in Iraq. And I’d like to ask you about events that occurred three years ago that might also explain why confidence has been shaken. Before we went to war in Iraq we said there were three main reasons for going to war in Iraq: weapons of mass destruction, the claim that Iraq was sponsoring terrorists who had attacked us on 9/11, and that Iraq had purchased nuclear materials from Niger. All three of those turned out to be false. My question is, how do we restore confidence that Americans may have in their leaders and to be sure that the information they are getting now is correct?

THE PRESIDENT: That’s a great question. First, just if I might correct a misperception. I don’t think we ever said — at least I know I didn’t say that there was a direct connection between September the 11th and Saddam Hussein. We did say that he was a state sponsor of terror — by the way, not declared a state sponsor of terror by me, but declared by other administrations. We also did say that Zarqawi, the man who is now wreaking havoc and killing innocent life, was in Iraq. And so the state sponsor of terror was a declaration by a previous administration. But I don’t want to be argumentative, but I was very careful never to say that Saddam Hussein ordered the attacks on America.

Bush was very careful about not saying that Saddam “ordered the attacks,” but he and his adminstration constantly linked Iraq and 9/11 in their public statements, helping to create a massive misperception among the American public. Here’s a classic example from Bush’s October 7, 2002 speech that is featured in the book:

We know that Iraq and the al Qaeda terrorist network share a common enemy — the United States of America. We know that Iraq and al Qaeda have had high-level contacts that go back a decade. Some al Qaeda leaders who fled Afghanistan went to Iraq. These include one very senior al Qaeda leader who received medical treatment in Baghdad this year, and who has been associated with planning for chemical and biological attacks. We’ve learned that Iraq has trained al Qaeda members in bomb-making and poisons and deadly gases. And we know that after September the 11th, Saddam Hussein’s regime gleefully celebrated the terrorist attacks on America.

As we wrote: “The statement bracketed assertions about operational contacts between Iraq and al Qaeda with broad rhetoric suggesting that their shared dislike for the U.S. meant that they were somehow allied. More important, it muddled the blame for September 11, suggesting that the Iraqi government was somehow connected to the attacks because it ‘gleefully celebrated’ them.”

(See All the President’s Spin, pages 177-84 and 207-216, for more.)