Zarqawi’s group assassinated USAID’s Lawrence Foley in 2002 in Jordan using operatives from the Milan Cell... same cell that sent code-word laden messages about impending 9/11 attacks...
Al-Zarqawi was in Baghdad from May until late November 2002. After that he moved north. One of his group’s goals was to overthrow the King of Jordan.
The Dems in the Senate pointedly ignored his ties to al Dhouri, Saddam Hussein’s red headed general. They also insisted he was not al Qaeda, in spite of training his forces in camps adjacent to al Qaeda’s in Afghanistan.
And they - probably for political reasons- always refer to him as a “Jordanian national” rather than what he identified himself as... a Palestinian.
In September 2001 Zarqawi was in Iran, not in Afghanistan. He only went to Afghanistan after our October 2001 invasion. After that he fled, wounded, to Baghdad.