“On October 17, 2004, [militant Jordanian Abu Musab al-] Zarqawi issued an online statement pledging allegiance to bin Laden. Zarqawi’s pledge was fulsome: ‘By God, O sheikh of the mujahideen, if you bid us plunge into the ocean, we would follow you. If you ordered it so, we would obey.’ And so, nearly two years after Bush administration officials had first argued that Zarqawi was part of al-Qaeda, the Jordanian terrorist finally got around to swearing allegiance to bin Laden.”
– Peter Bergen, The Longest War, Page 166