“In November 2004, a joint statement, authored by the Ba’th Party and signed by several groups including [al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab] al-Zarqawi’s, appeared on several jihadi websites. ‘We are committed to intensifying armed attacks against coalition forces and their spies and agents,’ it read. However, the Islamists added this qualification: ‘We are not signing this statement because we support the Ba’th Party or Saddam, but because it expresses the demands of the resistance groups in Iraq.’ “ [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]
– Abdel Bari Atwan, The Secret History of al Qaeda, Pages 208-209