Mahalo nui loa, Two_bears, my brother.

From the article linked to above

"Current and former intelligence officials now say Zarqawi's links to al-Qaida are more tenuous - the CIA now says Zarqawi considers himself independent of al-Qaida, for example. And while Zarqawi spent time in Iraq, it's unclear whether Saddam's regime simply allowed him to be there or actively tried to work with him."

That was in July 2003.

After we liberated Iraq, every terrorist and his uncle (barring our innocent Iraqi brothers and sisters, of course) lined up to take the sacred suicide belt on behalf of Bin Laden.
It doesn't mean that it was the case before the invasion, however.

You see, Two_bears, contrary to what you may have been told, I am not critical of the UK and the US per se. I'm only critical of them when they don't do things right.

And there has been a lot done wrong, in my opinion, since Feb. 5 2003

Jim