Al-qaeda, no. Terrorist activity, yes. Here's an old excerpt from CNN:
Although other groups, like the September 11 commission, have concluded that there was no link between Hussein and al Qaeda, the Pentagon was able to analyze much more information.
The documents cited in the report do reveal that Hussein supported a number of terrorists and terrorist activities inside and outside Iraq.
"The Iraqi regime was involved in regional and international terrorist operations prior to Operation Iraqi Freedom. The predominant targets of Iraqi state terror operations were Iraqi citizens, both inside and outside of Iraq," according to the report. Read excerpts from report
Most of the terrorism was aimed at keeping Hussein and his Baath party in power, according to Pentagon officials.
"State sponsorship of terrorism became such a routine tool of state power that Iraq developed elaborate bureaucratic processes to monitor progress and accountability in the recruiting, training and resourcing of terrorists," according to the report.
The report cited such examples as training for car bombs and suicide bombings in 1999 and 2000, both of which U.S. and Iraqi forces have struggled to contain since the rise of the insurgency in summer 2003.
Just broke my personal record for number of consecutive days without dying!