“On February 5, 2003, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell addressed the U.N. Security Council, declaring: ‘Iraq today harbors a deadly terrorist network headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, an associate and collaborator of Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaida lieutenants.’ …it was the first time the extent of Zarqawi’s network had received public acknowledgement.”
– Gilles Kepel and Jean-Pierre Milelli, eds., Al Qaeda In Its Own Words, Page 245