The following is clearly NOT an attempt to link 9/11 with Saddam. And note the date...

"Our basic national interest in Iraq is the protection of America, our desire to make sure that we are projecting our purposes in a way that reduces the ability of those who would wish to do us harm in this war against us, which was declared in the late 1990s, when it was obviously brought to our shores on September 11, that in that war we are best postured to make sure terrorists, specifically Islamic fundamentalists who wish to do us harm, are not successful. That is the first purpose of our engagement in Iraq."

Judd Gregg R-NH
January 18, 2007
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r110:S18JA7-0015: