Forgetting all of these circumstances, among others, Tom also recalls, as Steve Hayes, myself, and others have for some time, that in 1998, “Ayman al-Zawahiri was in Baghdad … and collected a check for $300,000 from the Iraqi regime.” I would add, for context, that this was in the same time frame as bin Laden and Zawahiri’s infamous fatwa calling for the murder of Americans – which, if you read it, argues that American actions against Iraq are a big part of the justification. It also came just a few months before al Qaeda bombed the U.S. embassies in east Africa, the Clinton administration bombed a Sudanese phramaceutical factory because intel indicated it was a joint Iraqi/Qaeda chemical weapons venture, and Clinton counter-terror honcho Richard Clarke fretted that “wily old Osama would boogie to Baghdad” – of all places – if the U.S. made things too hot for Qaeda in Afghanistan.