According to the information provided by the U.S. military, al-Masri traveled to Iraq in 2002 before Zarqawi and established the first al Qaeda cell in the Baghdad area. From both his nationality and connections with al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri, it can be reasonably concluded that al-Masri was a member of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the group that al-Zawahiri headed prior to his merger with bin Laden's organization. This is significant, given the 9/11 Commission report's cryptic note that al-Zawahiri had "ties of his own" to the former Iraqi regime and al-Masri's presence in Saddam's Baghdad.
With the advantage of hindsight, it appears that al-Masri was one of two "senior Egyptian Islamic Jihad associates" that then-CIA Director George Tenet referenced to Senator Jack Reed before the Senate Armed Services Committee:
SEN. REED:
I--I--the issue is--and I want to be clear. I understand your response. This issue is his relationship to Saddam Hussein, to Baghdad, to--if he is operating in concert explicitly with Saddam Hussein, or is there for the--his own convenience and safety--can you comment on that?
TENET: T
he argument--the specific line of evidence and argument we have made is they're providing safe haven to him. And we know this because a foreign government approached the Iraqis twice about Zarqawi's presence in Baghdad, and he disappeared. The second troubling piece of this, sir, is, as I mentioned yesterday, the two dozen other associates and two senior Egyptian Islamic Jihad associates that's indistinguishable from al Qaeda because they merged there. And the third piece I'd say to you is Baghdad's not Geneva. It is inconceivable that these people are sitting there without the Iraqi intelligence services knowledge of the fact that there is a safe haven being provided by people to people who believe it's fairly comfortable to operate there. That's as far as I can take the story today.
SEN. REED:
All right. Following up, the presence--all of these individuals you've cited are in Baghdad, based on your information?
TENET:
Yes.
SEN. REED:
Do you have any information that, beyond providing the safe haven, as you seem to have clear evidence, that the Iraqi regime is facilitating their operations?
TENET:
That's what we're trying to understand more of, sir.
It should be noted in the exchange cited above that Sen. Reed acknowledged to Director Tenet that there appeared to be "clear evidence" that the Iraqi regime was providing safe haven to Zarqawi and two senior Egyptian Islamic Jihad associates (one of whom was al-Masri). Secretary Powell later described these same individuals before the U.N. Security Council as having "established a base of operations" in Baghdad where they could "coordinate the movement of people, money and supplies into and throughout Iraq . . . they've now been operating freely in the capital for more than eight months."
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/012/333iynoa.asp
