Former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair wrote: Abu Musab al- “Zarqawi, the deputy to bin Laden, had come to Iraq in May 2002, had had meetings with senior Iraqis and established a presence there in October 2002. This intelligence has not been withdrawn, by the way. Probably we should have paid more attention to its significance, but we were so keen not to make a false claim about al-Qaeda and Saddam that we somewhat understated it, at least on the British side.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]
– Tony Blair, A Journey, Page 384