On February 5, 2003, “On ABC’s World News Tonight just hours after [Secretary of State Colin Powell’s] testimony [to the U.N. Security Council], investigative reporter Brian Ross raised questions about Powell’s claims of Iraqi links to [Kurdish Sunni Islamist group] Ansar al Islam. …’There’s no doubt Ansar al Islam is a radical Islamic terror group,’ Ross said. ‘Their own videos show it. Their ties to al Qaeda are also well documented. But they operate in a part of Iraq not controlled by Saddam Hussein and their leaders say they seek to overthrow Saddam Hussein and his government.’ The piece cut to Mullah Krekar, Ansar’s longtime leader and religious authority, then living openly in Norway. ‘[The Iraqi leaders] are our enemy,’ Krekar said. ‘Really, they are also our enemy.’ Krekar also said he had no association with [al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab] al Zarqawi. Ross noted that British intelligence was skeptical of the links: ‘another blow to the U.S. case.’ ”
– Stephen F. Hayes, The Connection, Page 168