In his treatise ‘Loyalty and Enmity,’ written in December 2002, al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al Zawahiri stated: ” ‘The issue [of a coalition to evict Iraq’s army from Kuwait after the 1990 invasion] is not about helping infidel forces against the forces of the Baathist Saddam [Hussein]; instead, it is about the usurpation of the oil wells in the Arabian Peninsula. There was no need for an American presence; the armies of Arab and Islamic states were sufficient and able to protect and liberate Kuwait.’ “ [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]
– Raymond Ibrahim, ed./trans., The Al Qaeda Reader, Pages 105-106