I alluded to the answer of that question in a parallel thread, here, Diana, and I quoted from this article (can't access it myself now, though; it's a 'subscription' page)

I think however, that whatever 'indepencence' some of these organisations had before the invasion of Iraq, quite a lot of them do now see themselves as part of the larger Bin Laden 'network', insofar as some of their 'short-term' aims are concerned.

Jim