“IRAQ and terrorism go back decades. Baghdad trains Palestine Liberation Front members in small arms and explosives. Saddam uses the Arab Liberation Front to funnel money to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers in order to prolong the Intifada.

And it’s no secret that Saddam’s own intelligence service was involved in dozens of attacks or attempted assassinations in the 1990s.

But what I want to bring to your attention today is the potentially much more sinister nexus between Iraq and the al-Qaeda terrorist network, a nexus that combines classic terrorist organisations and modern methods of murder.

Iraq today harbours a deadly terrorist network headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a collaborator of Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda lieutenants. Zarqawi, a Palestinian born in Jordan, fought in the Afghan war more than a decade ago.

Returning to Afghanistan in 2000, he oversaw a terrorist training camp. One of (its) specialities is poisons.

When our coalition ousted the Taleban, the Zarqawi network helped establish another poison and explosive training centre camp in northeastern Iraq. The network is teaching its operatives how to produce ricin and other poisons.

Those helping to run this camp are Zarqawi lieutenants operating in Kurdish areas outside Saddam Hussein’s (control). But Baghdad has an agent in the most senior levels of the radical organisation, Ansar al-Islam, that controls this corner of Iraq. In 2000 this agent offered al-Qaeda safe haven in the region. Some of its members accepted this.

Zarqawi’s activities are not confined to this corner of Iraq. He travelled to Baghdad in May 2002 for medical treatment, staying for two months while he recuperated. During this stay, nearly two dozen extremists converged on Baghdad and established a base.

These al-Qaeda affiliates, based in Baghdad, co-ordinate the movement of people, money and supplies into and throughout Iraq for (Zarqawi’s) network, and they’ve (operated) freely in the capital for more than eight months.

We in the United States lost a dear friend with the cold-blooded murder of Lawrence Foley in Amman, Jordan, last October. A despicable act was committed that day: the assassination of an individual whose mission was to assist the people of Jordan. The captured assassin says his cell received money and weapons from Zarqawi for that murder.

Iraqi officials protest that they are not aware of the whereabouts of Zarqawi or of any of his associates. These protests are not credible.

We asked a friendly security service to approach Baghdad about extraditing Zarqawi and providing information about him and associates. This service contacted Iraqi officials, and we passed details that should have made it easy to find Zarqawi. The network remains in Baghdad. Zarqawi remains at large to come and go.

Zarqawi and his network have plotted terrorist actions against countries including France, Britain, Spain, Italy, Germany and Russia.

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