“The intelligence summarized in the [Undersecretary of Defense Douglas] Feith memo [on October 27, 2003] included information that bin Laden’s top deputy, Ayman al Zawahiri, ‘visited Baghdad and met with the Iraqi Vice President on 3 February 1998. The goal of the visit was to arrange for coordination between Iraq and bin Laden and establish camps in al-Falluja, an-Nasiriya, and Iraqi Kurdistan under the leadership of Abdul Aziz.’ The visit coincided with a payment of $300,000 from Iraqi intelligence to Zawahiri’s Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which merged that same year with al Qaeda.”
– Stephen F. Hayes, The Connection, Page 103