This links to a document:
http://www.csis.org/component/option,com_csis_press/task,view/id,1526/
That contains this text:
On your second question, people forget that before we went into Iraq in early 2003, Zarqawi was in Iraq. He had a network in Baghdad. He also had ties to a group in the northeastern part of the country. That was behind a poison plot that was uncovered and frustrated in a number of European countries. This was before we ever went in. So the notion that Zarqawi is of concern about terror plots outside the country has a base in the experience before we ever went into Iraq.
Second, there is a fair amount of information that he has been given that charge by al Qaeda, to have a role outside of Iraq in terms of terrorist planning.
We worry about that. We track it. And obviously, we will do everything we can to disrupt it. But the easiest way to disrupt it, of course, is to deny Zarqawi a safe haven in Iraq, a place from which he can plan, and obviously, disrupt his networks and bring him to justice.
This seems to point at Zarqawi and Al Queda being active in Iraq before the US went in.
|