It gets more interesting when you add iran and others to the picture...here's a bit:
1992 : (HIZBALLAH, IRAN, BIN LADEN, AL QEADA) Bin Laden makes a proposal to the Shiite organization Hizballah that they set aside their differences to cooperate in a common objective of killing US troops stationed in Asia and Africa. - MSNBC
1990s early : (HIZBALLAH, IRAN & AL QAEDA STILL LINKED) Testimony in the East Africa embassy bombings trial, concluded last year (2001), lays out connections between al-Qaida and the Iranian government, an unidentified senior Iranian religious leader and Iran’s most favored terrorist group, the Hizballah, during the early 1990s. - MSNBC
1990s early and mid : (AL QAEDA & IRANIAN OFFICIALS MEET) Specifically, the transcript of the trial shows that as early as 1998 the US was aware that on “various” occasions during the early to mid-1990s, high-ranking al-Qaida members met with Iranian officials and that bin Laden himself met with the leader of its terrorist surrogate, the Hizballah, to “cooperate against the perceived common enemy,” the US. Among the prosecutors’ revelations at the embassy bombing trials was that Iran and Hizballah provided weapons and weapons training to al-Qaida and its ally, the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, and that “Osama bin Laden and other ranking members of al-Qaida, stated privately ... al-Qaida should put aside its differences with Shiite Muslim terrorist organizations, including the government of Iran and its affiliated terrorist group Hizballah, to cooperate” against the US. Moreover, there was testimony that bin Laden met with Imad Mugniyeh, the mastermind behind the terrorist attacks that took more than 300 American lives in Beirut during the 1980s.- MSNBC
1992 - 1996 : (AL QAEDA'S SALIM, IRANIAN CLERIC, AL QAEDA, NATIONAL ISLAMIC FRONT OF SUDAN, IRANIAN GOVERNMENT) The meetings between al-Qaida and the unidentified Iranian religious leader took place in Sudan with Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, bin Laden’s former financial manager, representing al-Qaida. They took place at “various times” between 1992 and 1996, according to prosecutors. All the meetings apparently took place in Sudan. According to U.S. prosecutors, “At various times between in or about 1992 and in or about 1996, the defendant Mamdouh Mahmud Salim met with an Iranian religious official in Khartoum as part of an overall effort to arrange a tripartite agreement between al-Qaida, the National Islamic Front of Sudan and elements of the government of Iran to work together against the United States, Israel and other Western countries.” Salim goes on trial in New York early next year, and it is expected that details of those dealings will be made public. -MSNBC
MARCH 2002 : (VENEZUELAN BERNAL IS CAUGHT SMUGGLING ARMS INTO SAUDI ARABIA FROM IRAQ) An MRV politician and close President Hugo Chavez aide closely tied to the Circulos Bolivarianos, Freddy Bernal, was in Iraq (in) March. He got caught trying to move arms into Saudi Arabia by U.N. peacekeeping forces policing the border- "Terror Threat from Venezuela: Al Queda Involved," by| Martin Arostegui, Militares Democraticos, December 27, 2002
MARCH 8, 2002 9:29 PM: (VENEZUELA, FATTAH, HANJOUR, 911 HIJACKERS) At 9:29 p.m. on March 8, 2002, Hakim Mamad Ali Diab Fattah landed at Venezuela's Simón Bolívar International Airport on board Delta Flight 397. The Venezuelan-born Arab had been the subject of international surveillance because he had taken lessons at two New Jersey flight schools attended by Hani Hanjour, who crashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. The FBI had arrested Fattah in the US after discovering that he also had talked about blowing up an airliner and had used forged identity documents. Information about him was requested from Venezuela's internal security service, Direccion de Inteligencia Seguridad y Prevencion (DISIP). But little was forthcoming other than psychiatric records showing that he was a diagnosed schizophrenic who had failed to attend therapy for more than a year. Top-level members of Venezuela's security services now are shedding some light on the mystery. General Marcos Ferreira, who recently resigned as director of the Venezuelan national guard's border control, Departamento de Extranjeria (DIEX), says that DISIP picked up Fattah directly from the plane and escorted him into a waiting car parked on the runway. - "Terror Threat from Venezuela: Al Queda Involved," by| Martin Arostegui, Militares Democraticos, December 27, 2002 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/813031/posts?page=21
MAY 8, 2002 : (JOSE PADILLA) Arrest of American citizen Jose Padilla AKA Abdulla al Mujahair (sp?) with a US passport coming into Chicago O'Hare from Pakistan. They are quiet about it and it doesn't make the news immediately. Target may have been Washington DC. It was determined to consider him an enemy combatant.
MAY 2002 : (IRAN, DRONE CRASHES) Iranian television aired pictures purporting to show a pilot-less US spy plane crash-landing in Iran's western Kurdestan province. Spies in Iranian skies: America does its own thing - again
JUNE 2002 (mid-month) : (IRAN, SECOND DRONE CRASHES) More unconfirmed reports in Tehran of the discovery of wreckage from another US drone. Speaking in Doha this week, Pentagon boss Donald Rumsfeld said he had information that Iran was "sheltering al-Qaida fighters who fled Afghanistan". Spies in Iranian skies: America does its own thing - again http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/699785/posts
JUNE 6, 2002 (CLINTON, IRA, SEIN FEIN) A BIZARRE veil of secrecy and iron-clad security last night shrouded an "achievement summit" in Dublin attended by former US president Bill Clinton and Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams. Scores of gardai, backed up by a Secret Service-type personnel equipped with earpieces, sleeve microphones and polite smiles, ringed the Four Seasons Hotel in Ballsbridge, where the summit was being held. The event, organised by the US-backed Academy of Achievement, was hosted by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and attended by "200 of the world's most outstanding graduate students".
JUNE 18, 2002 : (SYRIA, MOHAMMED HAYDAR ZAMMAR) The Washington Post reports that according to Arab intelligence sources, the Syrian debriefing of German citizen Mohammed Haydar Zammar, 41, is providing the United States with critical information on the genesis of the plot to attack New York and Washington as well al Qaeda's structure and possible plans. It is unclear if U.S. officials have direct access to Zammar or whether the Syrians put questions from the United States to the prisoner and then report back. But an Arab source said Zammar has become another check on information the United States gleans from the interrogation of al Qaeda prisoners worldwide, including the captured senior bin Laden Lieutenant Abu Zubaida. German intelligence sources said today that they were only informed by U.S. officials Thursday of Zammar's imprisonment in Syria after an article in The Washington Post raised questions about his whereabouts. Zammar is being held by the Syrian authorities on long-standing charges that he was involved in a bombing plot in the country, Arab officials said. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/701938/posts http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3955-2002Jun18.html
JUNE 22, 2002 : (IRANIANS, UN, CAMERAS, BROOKLYN BRIDGE, TUNNELS, STATUE OF LIBERTY) Middle Easterners spotted videotaping the Brooklyn Bridge, entrance tunnels, and the Statue of Liberty. they were stopped and questioned but not arrested because they were employees of the Iranian mission to the UN and had diplomatic immunity. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/707456/posts?page=1
JUNE 27, 2002 : (IRANIANS, UN, CAMERAS, BROOKLYN BRIDGE, TUNNELS, STATUE OF LIBERTY) Two men who work in NY for Iran's mission to the UN are being expelled from the US, ABCNEWS has learned. Sources told ABCNEWS that the two Iranians were seen five days ago videotaping the Brooklyn Bridge, the entrance to the tunnels into Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty. The men, who have been in the US only four months and are described as security workers for the mission, were stopped and questioned by NY police, sources said, but were not arrested because of their diplomatic immunity. U.S. officials plan to expel the men for suspicious activities, some of which are related to irregularities in their identification documents, sources said. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/707456/posts?page=1
JUNE 29, 2002 : (NORTH & SOUTH KOREA SEA BATTLE) One South Korean vessel was sunk in the exchange in the Yellow Sea, off the west coast of the divided peninsula http://asia.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/east/06/29/korea.navy.timeline.reut/
JULY 2002 : (mid-month) (BUSH STATEMENT TO IRANIAN PEOPLE) IN A STATEMENT BROADCAST into Iran in mid-July, Bush promised unspecified U.S. “support” to “Iran’s people” as they “move toward a future defined by greater freedom.” http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/731188/posts?page=1
JULY 31, 2002 : (WASHINGTON POST REPORTS CIA FOUND IRAQI BIOWEAPONS LAB) The Washington Post runs a detailed report (“Reality is uncertainty,” by Joby Warrick, Washington Post, 31 July 2002) suggesting that the CIA has found a laboratory called Tahhaddy, or “Challenge”, on the west bank of the Tigris river, employing a team of 85 scientists working on a viral strain code-named Blue Nile. - Iraq - Scotsman says Saddam has weapons to wipe out world's population, nuclear bomb within 3 years "The Scotsman dossier - SPECIAL REPORT ON IRAQ" by Fraser Nelson, Westminster Editor
AUGUST 2002 : (US SATELLITES DETECT ACTIVITY AT IRAQI BIOWEAPONS FACILITY) US satellites detect a convoy of 60 trucks at a one of main suspected biological weapons factories, called the Taji Cell Protection Plant.- Iraq - Scotsman says Saddam has weapons to wipe out world's population, nuclear bomb within 3 years "The Scotsman dossier - SPECIAL REPORT ON IRAQ" by Fraser Nelson, Westminster Editor
SEPTEMBER 2002 : (IRAN & AL QAEDA) Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Thursday confirmed that the White House believes Iran has strong links with al-Qaida. “There are al-Qaida in Iran. There are a lot of al-Qaida in Iran," Rumsfeld said. "They are providing haven.... They don’t like it when we say that, but they are.” - "Suspected al-Qaida camp seen in Iran." Sources: U.S. images show site near Afghan border By Jim Miklaszewski and Robert Windrem , NBC NEWS, Sept. 26, 2002
SEPTEMBER 26, 2002 Thursday : (IRAQ, AL-QAEDA) WASHINGTON, (Reuters) - Senior al Qaeda leaders have been in Baghdad "in recent periods," U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Thursday, as the Bush administration pushed its case for possible military action against Iraq. Rumsfeld was not more specific about the timing, but his comments at a Pentagon briefing appeared designed to allay doubts among opposition Democrats and foreign allies that Iraq was a legitimate target in the U.S. war on terrorism. However, none of the evidence has been made public. "We certainly have evidence of senior al Qaeda who have been in Baghdad in recent periods. Whether they're currently there or not one never knows, because they're moving targets," he said, of the movement blamed by Washington for the Sept. 11 attacks on America that killed around 3,000 people. "If you're asking if it (intelligence) is current -- in the last period of days or weeks -- the answer is yes," the secretary said. ((Charles Aldinger, Washington newsroom, charles.aldinger@reuters.com)
(I'd love to be fly on this interrogation room wall:)
SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2002 : (SALEM, IRAQ, WEST BANK) Saddam Hussein's pro-Iraqi "terror banker" on the West Bank, Rakad Salem, 58 - who personally met with Saddam in Baghdad - is captured along with incriminating documents in a raid on his office in Ramallah. - "TERROR BANKER" by URI DAN, New York Post , October 9, 2002
OCTOBER 2002 : (IRAQ) Iraqi scientists know how to make chemical weapons that can penetrate military protective clothing, and Iraq imported up to 25 metric tons this month of a powder that is a crucial ingredient to such "dusty" weapons. Iraq told the UN the powder was destined for a pharmaceutical company. A former weapons inspector says that company was ordered by President Saddam Hussein before the 1991 Persian Gulf war to work on chemical and biological weapons. The powder, sold under the brand name Aerosil, has particles so small that, when coated with deadly poisons, they can pass through the tiniest gaps in protective suits. Researchers inside and outside the U.S. government say they are not certain Iraq has dusty chemical weapons. Declassified U.S. intelligence documents say Iraq produced a dusty form of the blister agent mustard gas in the 1980s and used it during its eight-year war with Iran. - "Iraq takes delivery of powder used in chemical arms, " AP via Washington Times, 11/18/02
OCTOBER 2002 : (IMMIGRATION, ASSADI, IRAQ) A Washington, D.C. jury convicted Mohammed Hussein Assadi of smuggling Iraqis into the United States through Cali, Colombia, Ecuador, and other locations in South America. Assadi supplied illegal alien Iraqis with stolen and altered European passports and round-trip airline tickets to the U.S. in exchange for up to $8,000 per person. These Iraqi smugglees purchased documents at a commercial vendor in Northern Iraq called the "Market of Passports," which they used to travel through Turkey and Ecuador into Colombia. According to a statement from the U.S. attorney's office, Assadi instructed the aliens to destroy the fraudulent passports and tickets while en route to America and to surrender to U.S. immigration authorities without disclosing their true place of origin. The scheme relied on smug knowledge of our government's "catch and release" policy for illegal aliens who are freed pending deportation proceedings -- a policy that remains in place today. - "The Iraqi Infiltration," by Michelle Malkin, townhall.com, November 20, 2002
OCTOBER 2, 2002 : (SALIM ARRESTED BY ISRAELIS: HE IS LINKED TO IRAQ) Rakahd Salim, the General Secretary of the Front for National Liberation in the West Bank and Arafat advisor , was arrested on October 2, 2002 after documents seized by the IDF during operation "Defensive Shield" indicated that he was responsible on behalf of Saddam Hussein for the distribution of money to the families of Palestinian terrorists and suicide bombers. Salim was directly responsible for the transfer of Iraqi aid funds to the families of suicide bombers and Palestinian terrorists.
OCTOBER 8, 2002 : (SALEM or SALIM, IRAQ, WEST BANK, ARAB LIBERATION FRONT, FATAH, PLO, PLF) Saddam Hussein's pro-Iraqi "terror banker" on the West Bank, Rakad Salem (Rakahd Salim) , 58 - who personally met with Saddam in Baghdad - confesses to funneling $15 million to Palestinian terrorists. Investigators said documents obtained in the West Bank verified Salem's admission that $15 million had passed from Saddam's personal control through a series of bank accounts until it reached the Arab Liberation Front, where Salem was secretary-general. Investigators said Salem served as Saddam's conduit to terrorists in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. They said he admitted paying $10,000 to the family of every Palestinian "martyr" - the popular term for homicide bomber. In addition, seriously wounded survivors of attacks on Israelis would receive $1,000 in Iraqi money, he said. The less seriously wounded would get $500. Authorities said Salem's notoriety as Saddam's money man put him in close contact with leading Palestinian factions, including Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, and he served on the Palestine Liberation Organization's Central Council. His arrest was the first of a major agent of the Iraqi dictator for a role in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Israeli authorities said the financial chain went from accounts in a branch of the Iraqi national bank in Amman, Jordan, to a Jordanian bank in Amman, to a Ramallah bank controlled by Salem. Israeli prosecutors did not say over what time period the $15 million was transferred. Until his arrest, Salem had occupied a fifth-floor office in Ramallah, on the same floor as the terrorist Palestinian Liberation Front, whose leader, Abu Abbas, carried out the 1986 hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro. Israeli authorities say Salem had close ties to Abbas, who is believed to be hiding out in Iraq. Salem was arrested last week by Israeli commandos who were disguised as Arabs. He is being held at an undisclosed location - "TERROR BANKER" by URI DAN, New York Post , October 9, 2002
JANUARY 5, 2003 Sunday : (US : FLORIDA) On January 5, at a press conference in Miami, the former personal pilot of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez dropped a bombshell that has been ignored by just about every major U.S. news organization: The Venezuelan president, according to the pilot, gave al Qaeda a substantial sum of money following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Venezuelan Air Force Major Juan Diaz Castillo, who is now seeking political asylum in the United States and says his "life and liberty are in danger in Venezuela," says Chavez chose him to conduct the transfer because he trusted him as a close personal assistant. At a Miami press conference this past Sunday (January 5, 2003), Diaz said that shortly following the September 11 terrorist attacks, Chavez commissioned him "to organize, coordinate, and execute a covert operation consisting of delivering financial resources, specifically $1 million, to [Afghanistan's] Taliban government, in order for them to assist the al-Qaeda terrorist organization," while, "making it appear as if humanitarian aid were being extended to the Afghan people." The first attempt to transfer the money fell through, but in late September 2001 Venezuelan Vice President Diosdado Cabello decided to funnel the money through Venezuela's ambassador in India, one Walter Marquez. The Taliban received the money and publicly acknowledged receipt of $100,000 in "humanitarian aid." "The rest went straight to al Qaeda," claims Díaz Castillo. "That is, $900,000." There is more. Diaz Castillo said that while in the Venezuelan air force, he saw Chavez's government send pro-Chavez armed groups — named "Bolivarian Circles," after South American independence hero Simón Bolívar — to Cuba for military training and ideological indoctrination, in order "to carry out acts of violence through them" against opponents. Diaz also says that Chavez has supplied money and arms to the Marxist guerrillas in neighboring Colombia that have plunged that country into chaos. Diaz Castillo's testimony alone should not be taken at face value — but his statements are consistent with other defectors' testimony and Chavez's public behavior, such as the testimony of General Marcos Ferreira, who resigned as director of venezuela's border-control service, and the testimony of General Nestor Gonzalez, another military dissident. - "Chavez Bombshell? - A defector’s testimony links the Venezuelan strongman to international terror," by Ivan G. Osorio , www.nationalreview.com , January 8, 2003